Critical Review: Brunello Cucinelli (OTCMKTS:BCUCF) and Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE)

Lakeland Industries (NASDAQ:LAKE) and Brunello Cucinelli (OTCMKTS:BCUCF) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Lakeland Industries and Brunello Cucinelli, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lakeland Industries	1	1	3	0	2.40
Brunello Cucinelli	0	0	0	0	0.00

Lakeland Industries presently has a consensus price target of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 42.22%. Given Lakeland Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Lakeland Industries is more favorable than Brunello Cucinelli.

Dividends

Lakeland Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Brunello Cucinelli pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Lakeland Industries pays out -4.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brunello Cucinelli pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lakeland Industries has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Lakeland Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Lakeland Industries and Brunello Cucinelli”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lakeland Industries	$193.32 million	0.57	-$25.31 million	($2.13)	-5.28
Brunello Cucinelli	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.48	197.15

Brunello Cucinelli has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Lakeland Industries. Lakeland Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brunello Cucinelli, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Lakeland Industries and Brunello Cucinelli’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lakeland Industries	-10.87%	-6.64%	-4.13%
Brunello Cucinelli	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.7% of Lakeland Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.2% of Brunello Cucinelli shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Lakeland Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lakeland Industries beats Brunello Cucinelli on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lakeland Industries

Lakeland Industries, Inc. manufactures and sells industrial protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and public protective clothing market worldwide. It offers firefighting and heat protective apparel to protect against fire; high-end chemical protective suits to provide protection from highly concentrated, toxic and/or lethal chemicals, and biological toxins; and limited use/disposable protective clothing, such as coveralls, laboratory coats, shirts, pants, hoods, aprons, sleeves, arm guards, caps, and smocks. The company provides durable woven garments, including electrostatic dissipative apparel used in electronics clean rooms; flame resistant meta aramid, para aramid, and FR cotton coveralls/pants/jackets used in petrochemical, refining operations, and electrical utilities; FR fabrics; and cotton and polycotton coveralls, lab coats, pants, and shirts. In addition, it provides high visibility clothing comprising reflective apparel, including vests, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, raingear, jumpsuits, hats, and gloves; and gloves and sleeves that are used in the automotive, glass, and metal fabrication industries. The company sells its products to a network of safety and industrial supply distributors through in-house sales teams, customer service group, and independent sales representatives. It serves end users, such as integrated oil, chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, cleanroom, janitorial, pharmaceutical, and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as scientific, medical laboratories, and the utilities industry; and federal, state, and local governmental agencies and departments. Lakeland Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.

About Brunello Cucinelli

Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and sale of clothing, accessories, and lifestyle products in Italy, Europe, North America, Japan, and China. The company offers women's collection, including coats and jackets, blazers, knitwear, jumpsuits, dresses, t-shirts and tops, shirts, skirts, pants, denim, travel wear, and matching sets; sneakers, heels, boots, loafers, sandals, and flat shoes; hats, belts, eyewear, jewelry, scarves, and other accessories; mini bags and clutches; crossbody bags and backpacks; and handbags and shoppers. It also provides men's collection, such as coats and jackets, knitwear, blazers, suits, tuxedos, t-shirts and polos, shirts, pants, denims, travel wear, and all ready to wear; sneakers, lace-ups, loafers, slides and flip-flops, and other leisure products; leather goods, bags, hats, belts, scarves; other accessories; and kids collections. In addition, the company offers lifestyle products, which include throw and blanket, cushion, studio products, candles and fragrances, travel essential, décor sets, leisure wear, kitchen and table ware, and ceramic creation products. It sells its products through directly operated stores, hard shops, and single-brand stores and independent multi-brand points of sale and dedicated shop-in-shops in department stores, as well as online. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Solomeo, Italy. Brunello Cucinelli S.p.A. is a subsidiary of Foro delle Arti S.r.l.