Comparing LGI Homes (NASDAQ:LGIH) and Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT)

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) and LGI Homes (NASDAQ:LGIH) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Lifetime Brands has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, LGI Homes has a beta of 1.83, suggesting that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lifetime Brands and LGI Homes”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifetime Brands	$647.93 million	0.32	-$26.94 million	($1.27)	-7.24
LGI Homes	$1.68 billion	0.83	$72.55 million	$2.85	21.07

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Lifetime Brands and LGI Homes, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifetime Brands	1	2	1	0	2.00
LGI Homes	2	2	2	0	2.00

Lifetime Brands presently has a consensus target price of $8.50, suggesting a potential downside of 7.51%. LGI Homes has a consensus target price of $72.75, suggesting a potential upside of 21.17%. Given LGI Homes’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe LGI Homes is more favorable than Lifetime Brands.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

40.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.9% of LGI Homes shares are held by institutional investors. 44.4% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of LGI Homes shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Lifetime Brands and LGI Homes’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifetime Brands	4.81%	27.16%	9.44%
LGI Homes	3.88%	3.55%	1.88%

Summary

LGI Homes beats Lifetime Brands on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc. designs, sources, and sells branded kitchenware, tableware, and other products for use in the home in the worldwide. The company provides kitchenware products, including kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery, kitchen scales, thermometers, cutting boards, shears, cookware, pantryware, spice racks, and bakeware; and tableware products comprising dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and giftware. It also provides home solutions, such as thermal beverageware, bath scales, weather and outdoor household, food storage, neoprene travel, and home décor products. The company owns or licenses various brands, including the Farberware, Mikasa, Taylor, KitchenAid, Pfaltzgraff, BUILT NY, Rabbit, Kamenstein, S’well, and Fred & Friends. It serves mass market merchants, specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, grocery stores, off-price retailers, food service distributors, food and beverage outlets, and e-commerce. The company sells its products directly, as well as through its retail websites. Lifetime Brands, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Garden City, New York.

About LGI Homes

LGI Homes, Inc. designs, constructs, and sells homes. It offers entry-level homes, such as attached and detached homes, and active adult homes under the LGI Homes brand name; and luxury series homes under the Terrata Homes brand name. The company also engages in the wholesale business, which include building and selling homes to large institutions looking to acquire single-family rental properties. It serves customers in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Tennessee, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alabama, California, Oregon, Nevada, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Utah. LGI Homes, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.