Head-To-Head Analysis: Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) versus Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) and Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) 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 analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Lifetime Brands has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.31, meaning that its stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Barnes & Noble Education’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifetime Brands	-4.22%	8.08%	2.71%
Barnes & Noble Education	-0.57%	-20.37%	-5.70%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

40.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by institutional investors. 44.4% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Barnes & Noble Education”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifetime Brands	$651.36 million	0.21	-$26.94 million	($1.27)	-4.65
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.61 billion	0.22	-$65.82 million	($0.32)	-32.83

Lifetime Brands has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Barnes & Noble Education. Barnes & Noble Education is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lifetime Brands, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Lifetime Brands and Barnes & Noble Education, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifetime Brands	1	2	1	0	2.00
Barnes & Noble Education	1	0	0	0	1.00

Lifetime Brands presently has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential downside of 15.40%. Given Lifetime Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Lifetime Brands is more favorable than Barnes & Noble Education.

Summary

Lifetime Brands beats Barnes & Noble Education on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc. designs, sources, and sells branded kitchenware, tableware, and other products for use in the home in the worldwide. The company provides kitchenware products, including kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery, kitchen scales, thermometers, cutting boards, shears, cookware, pantryware, spice racks, and bakeware; and tableware products comprising dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and giftware. It also provides home solutions, such as thermal beverageware, bath scales, weather and outdoor household, food storage, neoprene travel, and home décor products. The company owns or licenses various brands, including the Farberware, Mikasa, Taylor, KitchenAid, Pfaltzgraff, BUILT NY, Rabbit, Kamenstein, S’well, and Fred & Friends. It serves mass market merchants, specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, grocery stores, off-price retailers, food service distributors, food and beverage outlets, and e-commerce. The company sells its products directly, as well as through its retail websites. Lifetime Brands, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Garden City, New York.

About Barnes & Noble Education

Barnes and Noble Education, Inc. engages in the management and operation of bookstore chains in universities. It operates through the Retail and Wholesale segments. The Retail segment operates college, university, and K-12 school bookstores, physical bookstores, and virtual bookstores. The Wholesale segment sells and distributes new and used textbooks to physical bookstores. The company was founded by Leonard S, Riggio in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, NJ.