Contrasting Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA) & Pool (NASDAQ:POOL)

Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) and Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Pool and Escalade, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pool	1	6	5	0	2.33
Escalade	0	2	0	0	2.00

Pool presently has a consensus target price of $281.50, indicating a potential upside of 27.25%. Given Pool’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Pool is more favorable than Escalade.

Dividends

Pool pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Escalade pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Pool pays out 46.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Escalade pays out 60.6% 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. Pool has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.0% of Pool shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.2% of Escalade shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of Pool shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 28.8% of Escalade shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pool and Escalade”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pool	$5.29 billion	1.54	$406.40 million	$10.84	20.41
Escalade	$240.16 million	0.85	$13.70 million	$0.99	15.03

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

Profitability

This table compares Pool and Escalade’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pool	7.67%	31.49%	11.07%
Escalade	5.70%	8.07%	6.11%

Volatility & Risk

Pool has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Escalade has a beta of 0.7, indicating that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pool beats Escalade on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pool

Pool Corporation distributes swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products in the United States and internationally. The company offers maintenance products, including chemicals, supplies, and pool accessories; repair and replacement parts for pool equipment, such as cleaners, filters, heaters, pumps, and lights; and building materials, such as concrete, plumbing and electrical components, functional and decorative pool surfaces, decking materials, tiles, hardscapes, and natural stones for pool installations and remodeling. It also provides pool equipment and components for new pool construction and the remodeling of existing pools; irrigation and related products, such as irrigation system components, and professional turf care equipment and supplies; commercial products, including heaters, safety equipment, commercial decking equipment, and commercial pumps and filters. In addition, the company offers fiberglass pools, and hot tubs and packaged pool kits comprising walls, liners, braces, and coping for in-ground and above-ground pools; and other pool construction and recreational products comprising discretionary recreational and related outdoor living products, such as grills and components for outdoor kitchens. It serves swimming pool remodelers and builders; specialty retailers that sell swimming pool supplies; swimming pool repair and service businesses; irrigation construction and landscape maintenance contractors; and commercial pool operators and pool contractors. Pool Corporation was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana.

About Escalade

Escalade, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, imports, and sells sporting goods in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company provides various sporting goods brands in basketball goals, archery, indoor and outdoor game recreation, and fitness products. It offers archery products under the Bear Archery, Trophy Ridge, Whisker Biscuit, Cajun Bowfishing, Karnage, SIK, BearX, and Bear Traditional brand names; table tennis products under the STIGA and Ping-Pong brands; basketball goals under the Goalrilla, Goaliath, Silverback, Hoopstar, and Goalsetter brand names; and pickleball under the Onix, DURA, and Pickleball Now brands. The company also provides play systems under the Woodplay, Jack & June, and Childlife brands; fitness products under the STEP, Lifeline, Kettleworx, Natural Fitness, USW, and PER4M brand names; safety products under the USWeight brand; hockey and soccer game tables under the Triumph Sports, Atomic, American Legend, Air Hockey, and HJ Scott brands; and billiard tables and accessories under the American Heritage Billiards, Brunswick Billiards, Gold Crown, Centennial, Cue&Case, Lucasi, Mizerak, PureX, Rage, Players, Minnesota Fats, and Mosconi brand names. In addition, it offers darting products under the Unicorn, Winmau, DMI, Prodigy, Arachnid, Accudart, and Nodor brands; water sports products under the RAVE Sports brand; and outdoor game products under the Victory Tailgate, Triumph Sports, ACL, and Zume Games brand names. The company provides its products through sporting goods retailers, specialty dealers, online retailers, direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, traditional department stores, and mass merchants. Escalade, Incorporated was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.