Comparing GrowGeneration (GRWG) and Its Competitors

GrowGeneration (NASDAQ:GRWG) is one of 285 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare GrowGeneration to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

36.0% of GrowGeneration shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.7% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of GrowGeneration shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.0% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for GrowGeneration and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GrowGeneration	1	1	1	0	2.00
GrowGeneration Competitors	3556	15323	21305	552	2.46

GrowGeneration presently has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 51.98%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 11.68%. Given GrowGeneration’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe GrowGeneration is more favorable than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares GrowGeneration and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
GrowGeneration	$161.74 million	-$24.05 million	-6.09
GrowGeneration Competitors	$7.12 billion	$390.09 million	16.53

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GrowGeneration	-10.07%	-17.44%	-11.52%
GrowGeneration Competitors	-3.38%	-30.08%	3.22%

Volatility and Risk

GrowGeneration has a beta of 2.56, meaning that its share price is 156% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GrowGeneration’s competitors have a beta of 1.77, meaning that their average share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

GrowGeneration competitors beat GrowGeneration on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

GrowGeneration Company Profile

GrowGeneration Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates retail hydroponic and organic gardening stores in the United States. The company engages in the marketing and distribution of nutrients, additives, growing media, lighting, and environmental control systems, as well as other indoor and outdoor growing products. It operates a chain of stores in California, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, Montana, New York, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, Rhode Island, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, and New Mexico, as well as growgeneration.com, an online superstore for cultivators, a wholesale business for resellers, HRG Distribution, and benching, racking, and storage solutions and MMI. The company was formerly known as Easylife Corp. GrowGeneration Corp. was founded in 2008 and is based in Greenwood Village, Colorado.