Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) Competitors

AutoNation (NYSE:AN) and Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) are both mid-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Do analysts rate AN or SFM?

AutoNation currently has a consensus price target of $176.63, suggesting a potential upside of 6.12%. Sprouts Farmers Market has a consensus price target of $53.50, suggesting a potential downside of 28.67%. Given Sprouts Farmers Market's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AutoNation is more favorable than Sprouts Farmers Market.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AutoNation	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Sprouts Farmers Market	2 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is AN or SFM more profitable?

Sprouts Farmers Market has a net margin of 4.25% compared to Sprouts Farmers Market's net margin of 3.41%. Sprouts Farmers Market's return on equity of 42.44% beat AutoNation's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AutoNation	3.41%	42.44%	8.06%
Sprouts Farmers Market	4.25%	26.77%	9.16%

Which has more risk and volatility, AN or SFM?

AutoNation has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sprouts Farmers Market has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AN or SFM?

Sprouts Farmers Market received 284 more outperform votes than AutoNation when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.02% of users gave Sprouts Farmers Market an outperform vote while only 56.24% of users gave AutoNation an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AutoNation	Outperform Votes 374 56.24%	Underperform Votes 291 43.76%
Sprouts Farmers Market	Outperform Votes 658 62.02%	Underperform Votes 403 37.98%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in AN or SFM?

94.6% of AutoNation shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of AutoNation shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Sprouts Farmers Market shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, AN or SFM?

AutoNation has higher revenue and earnings than Sprouts Farmers Market. AutoNation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sprouts Farmers Market, 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
AutoNation	$26.95B	0.25	$1.02B	$21.09	7.89
Sprouts Farmers Market	$6.84B	1.10	$258.86M	$2.90	25.86

Does the media favor AN or SFM?

In the previous week, Sprouts Farmers Market had 30 more articles in the media than AutoNation. MarketBeat recorded 44 mentions for Sprouts Farmers Market and 14 mentions for AutoNation. Sprouts Farmers Market's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat AutoNation's score of 0.67 indicating that AutoNation is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AutoNation	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sprouts Farmers Market	13 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	15 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

AutoNation beats Sprouts Farmers Market on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.