Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) and Caleres (NYSE:CAL) Financial Comparison

Carvana (NYSE:CVNA) and Caleres (NYSE:CAL) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

56.7% of Carvana shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.4% of Caleres shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.2% of Carvana shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Caleres shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Carvana and Caleres”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carvana	$20.32 billion	4.13	$1.41 billion	$1.99	38.32
Caleres	$2.76 billion	0.17	-$6.69 million	$1.50	9.06

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

Profitability

This table compares Carvana and Caleres’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carvana	6.21%	34.77%	12.03%
Caleres	1.85%	7.84%	2.42%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Carvana and Caleres, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carvana	0	8	16	1	2.72
Caleres	0	3	0	0	2.00

Carvana currently has a consensus price target of $82.09, suggesting a potential upside of 7.65%. Given Carvana’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Carvana is more favorable than Caleres.

Risk and Volatility

Carvana has a beta of 3.66, suggesting that its stock price is 266% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Caleres has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Carvana beats Caleres on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carvana

Carvana Co., together with its subsidiaries, operates an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars in the United States. Its platform allows customers to research and identify a vehicle; inspect it using company's 360-degree vehicle imaging technology; obtain financing and warranty coverage; purchase the vehicle; and schedule delivery or pick-up from their desktop or mobile devices. The company also operates auction sites. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Tempe, Arizona.

About Caleres

Caleres, Inc. engages in the retail and wholesale of footwear business in the United States, Canada, East Asia, and internationally. It operates through Famous Footwear and Brand Portfolio segments. The company offers licensed, branded, and private-label athletic, casual, and dress footwear products. The company provides brand name athletic, casual, and dress shoes, including Nike, Skechers, adidas, Vans, Crocs, Converse, Puma, Birkenstock, New Balance, Under Armour, Dr. Martens, Asics, Timberland, Bearpaw, Skechers, HeyDude, Franco Sarto, Rykä, Vince, Bzees, Veronica Beard, and Zodiac brands, as well as company-owned and licensed brands, such as LifeStride, Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, Blowfish Malibu, and Naturalizer. The company also operates naturalizer.com, naturalizer.ca, vionicshoes.com, samedelman.com, samedelman.co.uk, allenedmonds.com, allenedmonds.ca, drschollsshoes.com, lifestride.com, francosarto.com, ryka.com, bzees.com, and zodiacshoes.com, as well as Vince.com, blowfishshoes.com, and veronicabeard.com websites. In addition, it designs, sources, manufactures, and markets footwear to retail stores, such as online retailers, national chains, department stores, mass merchandisers, and independent retailers. Further, the company wholesales men’s footwear, apparel, leather goods, and accessories under the Allen Edmonds brand; footwear for women under LifeStride brand; Italian footwear Franco Sarto brand; athletic footwear for women under the Rykä brand; women’s shoe collection under the Vince brand; women’s footwear under the Bzees brand; and women’s footwear collection under Veronica Beard brand. The company was formerly known as Brown Shoe Company, Inc. and changed its name to Caleres, Inc. in May 2015. Caleres, Inc. was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.