Reviewing Guess? (NYSE:GES) & Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FORD)

Guess? (NYSE:GES) and Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FORD) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Guess? and Forward Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guess?	1.01%	16.44%	3.05%
Forward Industries	-14.52%	-1,522.78%	-44.33%

Risk and Volatility

Guess? has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forward Industries has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

61.7% of Guess? shares are held by institutional investors. 33.7% of Guess? shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of Forward Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Guess? and Forward Industries”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guess?	$3.09 billion	0.28	$60.42 million	$0.16	104.28
Forward Industries	$30.19 million	2.06	-$1.95 million	N/A	N/A

Guess? has higher revenue and earnings than Forward Industries.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Guess? and Forward Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guess?	0	3	0	0	2.00
Forward Industries	0	0	0	0	0.00

Guess? presently has a consensus target price of $16.75, suggesting a potential upside of 0.39%. Given Guess?’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Guess? is more favorable than Forward Industries.

Summary

Guess? beats Forward Industries on 10 of the 11 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 Forward Industries

Forward Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sources, markets, and distributes carry and protective solutions. The company operates in two segments: OEM Distribution and Design. The OEM Distribution segment sources and distributes carrying cases and other accessories for medical monitoring and diagnostic kits; and various other portable electronic and non-electronic products, such as sporting and recreational products, bar code scanners, GPS location devices, tablets, and firearms. The Design segment provides hardware and software product design and engineering services. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers in the United States, China, Germany, Poland, and internationally. Forward Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is based in Hauppauge, New York.