Reviewing Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT) and Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Barnes & Noble Education and Boot Barn, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barnes & Noble Education	1	1	2	0	2.25
Boot Barn	0	1	11	1	3.00

Barnes & Noble Education currently has a consensus target price of $17.25, indicating a potential upside of 62.12%. Boot Barn has a consensus target price of $219.55, indicating a potential upside of 78.42%. Given Boot Barn’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Boot Barn is more favorable than Barnes & Noble Education.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Boot Barn shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barnes & Noble Education	1.29%	8.77%	2.66%
Boot Barn	10.35%	18.78%	10.03%

Volatility & Risk

Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Boot Barn has a beta of 1.7, suggesting that its share price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.71 billion	0.22	$16.87 million	$0.64	16.62
Boot Barn	$2.25 billion	1.65	$225.88 million	$7.90	15.58

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

Summary

Boot Barn beats Barnes & Noble Education on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Boot Barn

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc., a lifestyle retail chain, operates specialty retail stores in the United States. The company's specialty retail stores offer western and work-related footwear, apparel, and accessories for men, women, and kids. It offers boots, shirts, jackets, hats, belts and belt buckles, handbags, western-style jewelry, rugged footwear, outerwear, overalls, denim, and flame-resistant and high-visibility clothing. The company also provides gifts and home merchandise. The company also sells its products through e-commerce websites, including bootbarn.com; sheplers.com; and countryoutfitter.com. The company was formerly known as WW Top Investment Corporation and changed its name to Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. in June 2014. Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Irvine, California.