Matthews International (NASDAQ:MATW) and Oriental Land (OTCMKTS:OLCLY) Financial Review

Oriental Land (OTCMKTS:OLCLY) and Matthews International (NASDAQ:MATW) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Oriental Land and Matthews International, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oriental Land	0	1	0	0	2.00
Matthews International	2	1	0	0	1.33

Matthews International has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.00%. Given Matthews International’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Matthews International is more favorable than Oriental Land.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.1% of Matthews International shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of Matthews International shares are owned 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.

Risk and Volatility

Oriental Land has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Matthews International has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Oriental Land pays an annual dividend of $0.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Matthews International pays an annual dividend of $1.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Oriental Land pays out 11.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Matthews International pays out -109.7% 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. Matthews International has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Matthews International is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Oriental Land and Matthews International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oriental Land	18.75%	12.35%	8.57%
Matthews International	-2.65%	4.51%	1.45%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Oriental Land and Matthews International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oriental Land	$4.68 billion	7.03	$804.41 million	$0.54	37.19
Matthews International	$1.50 billion	0.42	-$24.47 million	($0.93)	-21.51

Oriental Land has higher revenue and earnings than Matthews International. Matthews International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Oriental Land, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Oriental Land beats Matthews International on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oriental Land

Oriental Land Co., Ltd. operates and manages theme parks and hotels in Japan. It operates through Theme Park, Hotel Business, and Other Business segments. The Theme Park segment operates and manages Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks. The Hotel Business segment operates and manages Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Disney Ambassador Hotel, and Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel, as well as Tokyo Disney Resort Toy Story Hotel. The Other Business segment operates and manages Ikspiari, a shopping complex that includes shops and restaurants, and a cinema complex; and Disney Resort Line, a monorail connecting four stations within Tokyo Disney Resort. It is also involved in the land development. Oriental Land Co., Ltd. was incorporated in 1960 and is based in Urayasu, Japan.

About Matthews International

Matthews International Corporation provides brand solutions, memorialization products, and industrial technologies worldwide. It operates through three segments: Memorialization, Industrial Technologies, and SGK Brand Solutions. The Memorialization segment provides bronze and granite memorials, upright granite memorials and monuments, concrete burial vaults, cremation memorialization products, granite benches, flower vases, crypt plates and letters, cremation urns, niche units, cemetery features, and statues, as well as bronze plaques, letters, emblems, vases, lights and photo ceramics, granite monuments, mausoleums, crypts, and flush memorials. The Industrial Technologies segment designs, manufactures, services, and distributes high-tech custom energy storage solutions, and product identification and warehouse automation technologies and solutions, including order fulfillment systems for identifying, tracking, picking, and conveying consumer and industrial products. This segment also provides engineered calendaring, laminating, and coating equipment; stand-alone marking products; laser and ink-jet printing systems; and spare parts, calendar, and coating-roller refurbishing and retrofits. The SGK Brand solutions segment provides brand management, pre-media services, printing plates and cylinders, imaging services, digital asset management, merchandising display systems, and marketing and design services for the consumer goods and retail industries. The company was founded in 1850 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.