Head to Head Analysis: Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) & Guess? (NYSE:GES)

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

Dividends

Columbia Sportswear pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Guess? pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Columbia Sportswear pays out 36.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Guess? pays out 562.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Guess? has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Guess? is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Columbia Sportswear	6.59%	12.97%	7.93%
Guess?	1.01%	16.44%	3.05%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

47.8% of Columbia Sportswear shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.7% of Guess? shares are held by institutional investors. 48.3% of Columbia Sportswear shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 33.7% of Guess? shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Columbia Sportswear and Guess?”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Columbia Sportswear	$3.42 billion	0.81	$223.27 million	$3.31	15.37
Guess?	$3.09 billion	0.29	$60.42 million	$0.16	105.97

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

Risk and Volatility

Columbia Sportswear has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Guess? has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Columbia Sportswear and Guess?, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Columbia Sportswear	3	5	2	0	1.90
Guess?	0	4	0	1	2.40

Columbia Sportswear presently has a consensus price target of $60.50, suggesting a potential upside of 18.91%. Guess? has a consensus price target of $16.75, suggesting a potential downside of 1.21%. Given Columbia Sportswear’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Columbia Sportswear is more favorable than Guess?.

Summary

Columbia Sportswear beats Guess? on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Columbia Sportswear

Columbia Sportswear Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and distributes outdoor, active, and everyday lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment in the United States, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada. The company provides apparel, accessories, and equipment for hiking, trail running, snow, fishing, hunting, mountaineering, climbing, skiing and snowboarding, trail, and outdoor activities. It offers footwear products that include lightweight hiking boot; trail running shoes; rugged cold weather boots; sandals and shoes for use in water activities; and footwear for lifestyle wear. In addition, it owned network of branded and outlet retail stores; brand-specific e-commerce sites; and concession or franchise-based arrangements with third parties at branded outlet and shop-in-shop retail locations, as well as through independently operated specialty outdoor and sporting goods stores, sporting goods chains, department store chains, internet retailers, and international distributors. The company sells its products under the Columbia, Mountain Hard Wear, SOREL, and prAna brand names. Columbia Sportswear Company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

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.