Haverty Furniture Companies (HVT) Competitors

Aaron's (NYSE:AAN) and Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, profitability, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in AAN or HVT?

92.0% of Aaron's shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.5% of Aaron's shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer AAN or HVT?

In the previous week, Haverty Furniture Companies had 8 more articles in the media than Aaron's. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Haverty Furniture Companies and 5 mentions for Aaron's. Haverty Furniture Companies' average media sentiment score of 0.31 beat Aaron's' score of 0.27 indicating that Aaron's is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Aaron's	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Haverty Furniture Companies	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, AAN or HVT?

Haverty Furniture Companies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Aaron's. Aaron's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Haverty Furniture Companies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aaron's	$2.14B	0.11	$2.82M	-$0.79	-10.15
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13M	0.50	$56.32M	$2.75	9.73

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AAN or HVT?

Aaron's received 145 more outperform votes than Haverty Furniture Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.29% of users gave Aaron's an outperform vote while only 64.37% of users gave Haverty Furniture Companies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Aaron's	Outperform Votes 537 70.29%	Underperform Votes 227 29.71%
Haverty Furniture Companies	Outperform Votes 392 64.37%	Underperform Votes 217 35.63%

Is AAN or HVT more profitable?

Haverty Furniture Companies has a net margin of 5.64% compared to Haverty Furniture Companies' net margin of -1.15%. Aaron's' return on equity of 14.98% beat Haverty Furniture Companies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aaron's	-1.15%	0.02%	0.01%
Haverty Furniture Companies	5.64%	14.98%	7.05%

Is AAN or HVT a better dividend stock?

Aaron's pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Aaron's pays out -63.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Haverty Furniture Companies pays out 46.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Aaron's has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Haverty Furniture Companies has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Aaron's is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more volatility & risk, AAN or HVT?

Aaron's has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend AAN or HVT?

Aaron's currently has a consensus price target of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 43.39%. Haverty Furniture Companies has a consensus price target of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 68.22%. Given Aaron's' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Haverty Furniture Companies is more favorable than Aaron's.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aaron's	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
Haverty Furniture Companies	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies beats Aaron's on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.