Critical Analysis: LL Flooring (NYSE:LL) & Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT)

Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) and LL Flooring (NYSE:LL) are both small-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Haverty Furniture Companies	5.64%	14.94%	7.00%
LL Flooring	-11.44%	-44.10%	-15.43%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.3% of LL Flooring shares are held by institutional investors. 9.4% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of LL Flooring shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Haverty Furniture Companies	0	0	1	0	3.00
LL Flooring	1	0	0	0	1.00

Haverty Furniture Companies presently has a consensus target price of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 56.47%. LL Flooring has a consensus target price of $3.25, suggesting a potential upside of 101.86%. Given LL Flooring’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LL Flooring is more favorable than Haverty Furniture Companies.

Volatility & Risk

Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.54, indicating that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LL Flooring has a beta of 1.85, indicating that its stock price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13 million	0.54	$56.32 million	$2.75	10.46
LL Flooring	$904.75 million	0.05	-$103.49 million	($3.59)	-0.45

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

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies beats LL Flooring on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Haverty Furniture Companies

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of residential furniture and accessories in the United States. The company offers furniture merchandise under the Havertys brand name. It also provides custom upholstery products and eclectic looks; and mattress product lines under the Tempur-Pedic, Serta, Sealy, and Stearns and Foster names. The company sells home furnishings through its retail stores, as well as through its website. Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About LL Flooring

LL Flooring Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a multi-channel specialty retailer of hard and soft surface flooring, and hard and soft surface flooring enhancements and accessories. The company offers hard and soft surface flooring including, waterproof hybrid resilient, waterproof vinyl plank, solid and engineered hardwood, laminate, bamboo, tile, and cork products; and flooring enhancements and accessories, including moldings, underlayment, adhesives, and tools, as well as Duravana, a hybrid resilient flooring under the Bellawood, Coreluxe, ReNature by Coreluxe, and Duravana brand names. It also provides in-home delivery and installation services. The company also offers its products through stores, digital platform, and catalogs. The company was formerly known as Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LL Flooring Holdings, Inc. in January 2022. LL Flooring Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.