Analyzing Bassett Furniture Industries (NASDAQ:BSET) and Sony (NYSE:SONY)

Bassett Furniture Industries (NASDAQ:BSET) and Sony (NYSE:SONY) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Bassett Furniture Industries and Sony’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bassett Furniture Industries	2.02%	4.36%	2.26%
Sony	-2.00%	13.06%	5.22%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Bassett Furniture Industries and Sony, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bassett Furniture Industries	0	1	1	1	3.00
Sony	1	4	12	0	2.65

Sony has a consensus target price of $373.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,329.28%. Given Sony’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sony is more favorable than Bassett Furniture Industries.

Dividends

Bassett Furniture Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Sony pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Bassett Furniture Industries pays out 101.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sony pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bassett Furniture Industries has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Bassett Furniture Industries is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

54.4% of Bassett Furniture Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.1% of Sony shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.3% of Bassett Furniture Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.0% of Sony shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Bassett Furniture Industries has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sony has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bassett Furniture Industries and Sony”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bassett Furniture Industries	$335.28 million	0.60	$6.10 million	$0.79	29.54
Sony	$82.90 billion	1.86	-$2.16 billion	$1.12	23.30

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

About Bassett Furniture Industries

Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and retails home furnishings in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Wholesale, Retail Company-Owned Stores, and Corporate and Other. The company engages in the design, manufacture, sourcing, sale, and distribution of furniture products, including dining, bedroom and bedding, home decorations, rugs, and outdoor furniture to a network of company-owned retail stores, licensee-owned stores, and independent retailers. The company also distributes its products through multi-line furniture stores, including Bassett galleries or design centers, as well as sells online; and engages in wood and upholstery operations. In addition, it owns and leases land, retail store properties, warehouses, and distribution centers. Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated was founded in 1902 and is based in Bassett, Virginia.

About Sony

Sony Group Corporation designs, develops, produces, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for the consumer, professional, and industrial markets in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company distributes software titles and add-on content through digital networks; network services related to game, video, and music content; and home gaming consoles, packaged and game software, and peripheral devices. It also develops, produces, markets, and distributes recorded music; publishes music; and produces and distributes animation titles, game applications, and various services for music and visual products. In addition, the company produces, acquires, and distributes live-action and animated motion pictures for theatrical release, as well as scripted and animated series, unscripted reality or light entertainment, daytime serials, game shows, television movies, and miniseries and other television programs; operation of television networks and direct-to-consumer streaming services; operates a visual effects and animation unit; and manages a studio facility. Further, it researches, develops, designs, produces, markets, distributes, sells, and services televisions, and video and sound products; interchangeable lens, as well as compact digital, and consumer and professional video cameras; projectors and medical equipment; mobile phones, accessories, and applications; and metal oxide semiconductor image sensors, charge-coupled devices, integration systems, and other semiconductors. Additionally, it offers Internet broadband network services; recording media, and storage media products; and life and non-life insurance, banking, and other services, as well as creates and distributes content for PCs and mobile phones. The company was formerly known as Sony Corporation and changed its name to Sony Group Corporation in April 2021. Sony Group Corporation was incorporated in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.