Head-To-Head Review: Dillard’s (DDS) versus Its Rivals

Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS) is one of 142 public companies in the “Broadline Retail” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Dillard’s to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, risk, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Dillard’s has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dillard’s’ competitors have a beta of -1.27, suggesting that their average share price is 227% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Dillard’s and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dillard’s	2	3	0	0	1.60
Dillard’s Competitors	1349	5297	10675	294	2.56

Dillard’s currently has a consensus target price of $521.33, indicating a potential downside of 14.71%. As a group, “Broadline Retail” companies have a potential upside of 17.06%. Given Dillard’s’ competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Dillard’s has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Dillard’s and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dillard’s	$6.47 billion	$570.19 million	14.53
Dillard’s Competitors	$22.53 billion	$1.73 billion	-224.23

Dillard’s’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Dillard’s. Dillard’s is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.2% of Dillard’s shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.5% of shares of all “Broadline Retail” companies are owned by institutional investors. 34.8% of Dillard’s shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 24.0% of shares of all “Broadline Retail” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Dillard’s pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Dillard’s pays out 2.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Broadline Retail” companies pay a dividend yield of 32.1% and pay out 11.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Dillard’s has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Dillard’s and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dillard’s	10.09%	31.43%	15.63%
Dillard’s Competitors	-3.16%	-18.42%	-1.34%

Summary

Dillard’s beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Dillard’s

Dillard’s, Inc. engages in the retail of fashion apparel, cosmetics, and home furnishings, and other consumer goods. It operates through the Retail Operations and Construction segments. The Retail Operations segment comprises sells cosmetics, ladies’ apparel, ladies’ accessories and lingerie, juniors’ and children’s apparel, men’s apparel and accessories, shoes, and home and furniture products. The Construction segment constructs and remodels stores through CDI Contractors, LLC. The company was founded by William Thomas Dillard in 1938 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.