Contrasting Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT) and MasterBrand (NYSE:MBC)

Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT) and MasterBrand (NYSE:MBC) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.6% of Hooker Furnishings shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.3% of MasterBrand shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Hooker Furnishings shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of MasterBrand shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Hooker Furnishings and MasterBrand, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hooker Furnishings	2	0	0	0	1.00
MasterBrand	1	1	1	0	2.00

MasterBrand has a consensus target price of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.85%. Given MasterBrand’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MasterBrand is more favorable than Hooker Furnishings.

Volatility and Risk

Hooker Furnishings has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MasterBrand has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hooker Furnishings and MasterBrand”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hooker Furnishings	$397.46 million	0.25	-$12.51 million	($1.21)	-7.73
MasterBrand	$2.70 billion	0.61	$125.90 million	$0.72	18.14

MasterBrand has higher revenue and earnings than Hooker Furnishings. Hooker Furnishings is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MasterBrand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Hooker Furnishings and MasterBrand’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hooker Furnishings	-3.40%	-4.17%	-2.75%
MasterBrand	3.37%	11.88%	5.28%

Summary

MasterBrand beats Hooker Furnishings on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hooker Furnishings

Hooker Furnishings Corporation designs, manufactures, imports, and markets residential household, hospitality, and contract furniture. It operates in three segments: Hooker Branded, Home Meridian, and Domestic Upholstery. The Hooker Branded segment offers design categories, including home entertainment, home office, accent, dining, and bedroom furniture under the Hooker Furniture brand; and imported upholstered furniture under the Hooker Upholstery brand. The Home Meridian segment provides home furnishings under the Accentrics Home brand; a range of bedroom, dining room, accent, display cabinet, home office, and youth furnishings under the Pulaski Furniture and Samuel Lawrence Furniture brands; and imported leather motion upholstery under the Prime Resources International brand. This segment also designs and supplies hotel furnishings for four and five-star hotels under the Samuel Lawrence Hospitality brand name. The Domestic Upholstery segment offers motion and stationary leather furniture under the Bradington-Young brand; chairs, sofas, sectionals, recliners, and a variety of accent upholstery pieces under the HF Custom brand; and upholstered furniture, such as private label sectionals, modulars, sofas, chairs, ottomans, benches, beds, and dining chairs for lifestyle specialty retailers under the Shenandoah Furniture brand. This segment also designs and manufactures outdoor furniture under the Sunset West brand. The company supplies upholstered seating and casegoods to upscale senior living and assisted living facilities through designers, design firms, industry dealers, and distributors under the H Contract brand; and interior designer products under the Lifestyle Brands name; and lighting, accessories, and home décor products under the BOBO Intriguing Objects brand. It sells home furnishing products through retailers, such as independent furniture stores, department stores, mass merchants, national chains, catalog merchants, interior designers, and e-commerce retailers primarily in North America. Hooker Furnishings Corporation was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Martinsville, Virginia.

About MasterBrand

MasterBrand, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of residential cabinets in the United States and Canada. The company offers a range of residential cabinetry products for the kitchen, bathroom, and other parts of the home. It sells its products to remodeling and new construction markets through dealers, retailers, and builders. The company was formerly known as United Cabinet Incorporated. MasterBrand, Inc. was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio.