Comparing Sekisui House (OTCMKTS:SKHSY) and Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT)

Sekisui House (OTCMKTS:SKHSY) and Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sekisui House and Hooker Furnishings”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sekisui House	$28.07 billion	0.50	$1.56 billion	$2.60	8.35
Hooker Furnishings	$278.14 million	0.51	-$26.97 million	($2.15)	-6.09

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Sekisui House and Hooker Furnishings, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sekisui House	0	0	0	1	4.00
Hooker Furnishings	1	1	0	0	1.50

Profitability

This table compares Sekisui House and Hooker Furnishings’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sekisui House	6.09%	11.36%	4.85%
Hooker Furnishings	-7.90%	1.61%	1.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.0% of Sekisui House shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.6% of Hooker Furnishings shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Hooker Furnishings shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Sekisui House has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its stock price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hooker Furnishings has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Sekisui House pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Hooker Furnishings pays an annual dividend of $0.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Sekisui House pays out 13.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hooker Furnishings pays out -21.4% 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. Hooker Furnishings has increased its dividend for 9 consecutive years. Hooker Furnishings is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Sekisui House beats Hooker Furnishings on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sekisui House

Sekisui House, Ltd. designs, constructs, and contracts built-to-order detached houses in Japan and internationally. The company operates through Custom Detached Houses, Rental Housing, Architectural/Civil Engineering, Remodeling, Real Estate Management Fees, Houses For Sale, Condominiums, Urban Redevelopment, and Overseas segments. It also engages in contracting of design and construction of custom detached houses, rental housing, office building, commercial buildings, and other properties; construction of reinforced concrete rental housing and commercial buildings; contracting of design and construction of civil engineering works; remodeling and renovation of houses; subleasing, management, operation, and brokerage of real estate; sale of houses and residential land; and sales of condominiums. Sekisui House, Ltd. was incorporated in 1929 and is headquartered in Osaka, Japan.

About Hooker Furnishings

Hooker Furnishings Corporation designs, manufactures, imports, and markets residential household, hospitality, and contract furniture. It operates in three segments: Hooker Branded, Home Meridian, and Domestic Upholstery. The Hooker Branded segment offers design categories, including home entertainment, home office, accent, dining, and bedroom furniture under the Hooker Furniture brand; and imported upholstered furniture under the Hooker Upholstery brand. The Home Meridian segment provides home furnishings under the Accentrics Home brand; a range of bedroom, dining room, accent, display cabinet, home office, and youth furnishings under the Pulaski Furniture and Samuel Lawrence Furniture brands; and imported leather motion upholstery under the Prime Resources International brand. This segment also designs and supplies hotel furnishings for four and five-star hotels under the Samuel Lawrence Hospitality brand name. The Domestic Upholstery segment offers motion and stationary leather furniture under the Bradington-Young brand; chairs, sofas, sectionals, recliners, and a variety of accent upholstery pieces under the HF Custom brand; and upholstered furniture, such as private label sectionals, modulars, sofas, chairs, ottomans, benches, beds, and dining chairs for lifestyle specialty retailers under the Shenandoah Furniture brand. This segment also designs and manufactures outdoor furniture under the Sunset West brand. The company supplies upholstered seating and casegoods to upscale senior living and assisted living facilities through designers, design firms, industry dealers, and distributors under the H Contract brand; and interior designer products under the Lifestyle Brands name; and lighting, accessories, and home décor products under the BOBO Intriguing Objects brand. It sells home furnishing products through retailers, such as independent furniture stores, department stores, mass merchants, national chains, catalog merchants, interior designers, and e-commerce retailers primarily in North America. Hooker Furnishings Corporation was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Martinsville, Virginia.