Reviewing Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT)

Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT) and Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Boot Barn and Barnes & Noble Education, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Boot Barn	0	1	11	1	3.00
Barnes & Noble Education	1	1	2	0	2.25

Boot Barn currently has a consensus price target of $219.55, indicating a potential upside of 78.42%. Barnes & Noble Education has a consensus price target of $17.25, indicating a potential upside of 62.12%. Given Boot Barn’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Boot Barn is more favorable than Barnes & Noble Education.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Boot Barn and Barnes & Noble Education”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Boot Barn	$2.25 billion	1.65	$225.88 million	$7.90	15.58
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.71 billion	0.22	$16.87 million	$0.64	16.62

Boot Barn has higher revenue and earnings than Barnes & Noble Education. Boot Barn is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Barnes & Noble Education, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Boot Barn has a beta of 1.7, meaning that its share price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Boot Barn shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Boot Barn and Barnes & Noble Education’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Boot Barn	10.35%	18.78%	10.03%
Barnes & Noble Education	1.29%	8.77%	2.66%

Summary

Boot Barn beats Barnes & Noble Education on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Boot Barn

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc., a lifestyle retail chain, operates specialty retail stores in the United States. The company's specialty retail stores offer western and work-related footwear, apparel, and accessories for men, women, and kids. It offers boots, shirts, jackets, hats, belts and belt buckles, handbags, western-style jewelry, rugged footwear, outerwear, overalls, denim, and flame-resistant and high-visibility clothing. The company also provides gifts and home merchandise. The company also sells its products through e-commerce websites, including bootbarn.com; sheplers.com; and countryoutfitter.com. The company was formerly known as WW Top Investment Corporation and changed its name to Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. in June 2014. Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Irvine, California.

About Barnes & Noble Education

Barnes and Noble Education, Inc. engages in the management and operation of bookstore chains in universities. It operates through the Retail and Wholesale segments. The Retail segment operates college, university, and K-12 school bookstores, physical bookstores, and virtual bookstores. The Wholesale segment sells and distributes new and used textbooks to physical bookstores. The company was founded by Leonard S, Riggio in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, NJ.