BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) & Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE:VAC) Critical Review

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) and Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE:VAC) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares BJ’s Restaurants and Marriott Vacations Worldwide”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BJ’s Restaurants	$1.40 billion	0.88	$48.81 million	$2.09	27.61
Marriott Vacations Worldwide	$5.03 billion	0.79	-$308.00 million	($7.43)	-15.54

BJ’s Restaurants has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Marriott Vacations Worldwide. Marriott Vacations Worldwide is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BJ’s Restaurants, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares BJ’s Restaurants and Marriott Vacations Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BJ’s Restaurants	2.86%	12.93%	4.79%
Marriott Vacations Worldwide	-4.75%	14.36%	3.06%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

100.0% of BJ’s Restaurants shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.5% of Marriott Vacations Worldwide shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of BJ’s Restaurants shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.3% of Marriott Vacations Worldwide shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for BJ’s Restaurants and Marriott Vacations Worldwide, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BJ’s Restaurants	1	4	4	0	2.33
Marriott Vacations Worldwide	2	4	8	0	2.43

BJ’s Restaurants currently has a consensus price target of $62.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.43%. Marriott Vacations Worldwide has a consensus price target of $111.91, suggesting a potential downside of 3.10%. Given BJ’s Restaurants’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe BJ’s Restaurants is more favorable than Marriott Vacations Worldwide.

Volatility & Risk

BJ’s Restaurants has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marriott Vacations Worldwide has a beta of 1.31, indicating that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BJ’s Restaurants beats Marriott Vacations Worldwide on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BJ’s Restaurants

BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. owns and operates casual dining restaurants in the United States. Its restaurants offer pizzas, craft and other beers, appetizers, entrées, pastas, sandwiches, specialty salads, and desserts under brand name Pizookie. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc. and changed its name to BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. in August 2004. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Huntington Beach, California.

About Marriott Vacations Worldwide

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, a vacation company, develops, markets, sells, and manages vacation ownership and related businesses, products, and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Vacation Ownership and Exchange & Third-Party Management. The company manages vacation ownership and related products under the Marriott Vacation Club, Grand Residences by Marriott, Sheraton Vacation Club, Westin Vacation Club, Hyatt Vacation Club, and Marriott Vacation Club Pulse brands. It develops, markets, and sells vacation ownership and related products under The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club brand; and holds right to develop, market, and sell ownership residential products under The Ritz-Carlton Residences brand. In addition, the company offers exchange networks and membership programs, as well as provision of management services to other resorts and lodging properties through Interval International, and Aqua-Aston business brands. Further, it provides financing consumer purchases of vacation ownership products, and renting vacation ownership inventory. The company sells its upscale tier vacation ownership products primarily through a network of resort-based sales centers and off-site sales locations. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.