Contrasting Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE:FUN) & Reading International (NASDAQ:RDI)

Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE:FUN) and Reading International (NASDAQ:RDI) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Six Flags Entertainment and Reading International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Six Flags Entertainment	1	6	7	0	2.43
Reading International	1	0	0	0	1.00

Six Flags Entertainment presently has a consensus target price of $25.15, indicating a potential upside of 7.00%. Given Six Flags Entertainment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Six Flags Entertainment is more favorable than Reading International.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Six Flags Entertainment and Reading International”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Six Flags Entertainment	$3.10 billion	0.77	-$1.60 billion	($16.32)	-1.44
Reading International	$202.99 million	0.14	-$14.14 million	($0.77)	-1.61

Reading International has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Six Flags Entertainment. Reading International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Six Flags Entertainment, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Six Flags Entertainment has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Reading International has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Six Flags Entertainment and Reading International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Six Flags Entertainment	-52.76%	5.17%	0.51%
Reading International	-8.43%	N/A	-4.03%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.7% of Six Flags Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.7% of Reading International shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Six Flags Entertainment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 32.4% of Reading International shares are owned by 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.

Summary

Six Flags Entertainment beats Reading International on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Six Flags Entertainment

Cedar Fair, L.P. owns and operates amusement and water parks, as well as complementary resort facilities. Its amusement parks include Cedar Point located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo in Sandusky, Ohio; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles, California; Canada's Wonderland near Toronto, Ontario; Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio; Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina; Kings Dominion situated near Richmond, Virginia; California's Great America located in Santa Clara, California; Dorney Park in Pennsylvania; Worlds of Fun located in Kansas City, Missouri; Valleyfair situated near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Michigan's Adventure situated near Muskegon, Michigan; Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort New Braunfels in New Braunfels, Texas; and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston in Galveston, Texas. The company also owns and operates the Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort, Hotel Breakers, Cedar Point's Express Hotel, and Sawmill Creek Resort. Cedar Fair, L.P. was founded in 1983 and is based in Sandusky, Ohio.

About Reading International

Reading International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, focuses on the ownership, development, and operation of entertainment and real property assets in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The company operates in two segments, Cinema Exhibition and Real Estate. The Cinema Exhibition segment operates multiplex cinemas. This segment operates its cinema exhibition businesses under the Reading Cinemas, Consolidated Theatres, Angelika Film Center, State Cinema by Angelika, Angelika Anywhere, Event Cinemas, and Rialto Cinemas brands. The Real Estate segment develops, rents, or licenses retail, commercial, and live theater assets. Reading International, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in New York, New York.