Head-To-Head Comparison: lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) & Guess? (NYSE:GES)

Guess? (NYSE:GES) and lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Guess? and lululemon athletica”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guess?	$3.14 billion	0.28	$60.42 million	$1.11	15.37
lululemon athletica	$10.90 billion	2.01	$1.81 billion	$14.71	12.56

lululemon athletica has higher revenue and earnings than Guess?. lululemon athletica is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Guess?, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Guess? and lululemon athletica’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guess?	1.01%	16.44%	3.05%
lululemon athletica	16.38%	42.05%	24.10%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

61.7% of Guess? shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of lululemon athletica shares are held by institutional investors. 33.7% of Guess? shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of lululemon athletica shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Guess? has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, lululemon athletica has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Guess? and lululemon athletica, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guess?	0	5	0	0	2.00
lululemon athletica	3	30	3	1	2.05

Guess? currently has a consensus price target of $16.75, suggesting a potential downside of 1.82%. lululemon athletica has a consensus price target of $227.68, suggesting a potential upside of 23.24%. Given lululemon athletica’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe lululemon athletica is more favorable than Guess?.

Summary

lululemon athletica beats Guess? on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guess?

Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes, and licenses lifestyle collections of apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. It operates through five segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The company’s clothing collection includes jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, shirts, jackets, activewear, knitwear, and intimate apparel. It also grants licenses to design, manufacture, and distribute various products that complement its apparel lines, such as eyewear, watches, handbags, footwear, kids’ and infants’ apparel, outerwear, fragrance, jewelry, and other fashion accessories, as well as to wholesale partners to operate and sell products through licensed retail stores. The company markets its products under the GUESS, GUESS?, GUESS U.S.A., GUESS Jeans, GUESS? and Triangle Design, MARCIANO, Question Mark and Triangle Design, a stylized G and a stylized M, GUESS Kids, Baby GUESS, YES, G by GUESS, GUESS by MARCIANO, and Gc brand names. It sells its products through direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and licensing distribution channels, as well as through its retail websites. Guess?, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About lululemon athletica

Lululemon Athletica Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, distributes, and retails athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories under the lululemon brand for women and men. It offers pants, shorts, tops, and jackets for healthy lifestyle, such as yoga, running, training, and other activities. It also provides fitness-inspired accessories. The company sells its products through a chain of company-operated stores; outlets; interactive workout platform; yoga and fitness studios, university campus retailers, and other partners; license and supply arrangements; and temporary locations, as well as through mobile apps and lululemon.com e-commerce website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, Mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Thailand, the Asia Pacific, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Lululemon Athletica Inc. was founded in 1998 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.