Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) and Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation and dividends.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Scholastic and Hillenbrand's gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
Scholastic | $1.49 billion | 0.74 | $-43,800,000.00 | ($0.08) | -399.88 |
Hillenbrand | $2.52 billion | 1.49 | $-60,100,000.00 | $3.19 | 15.71 |
Scholastic has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hillenbrand. Scholastic is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hillenbrand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
Scholastic pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Hillenbrand pays an annual dividend of $0.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Scholastic pays out -750.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hillenbrand pays out 27.0% 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. Scholastic has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Hillenbrand has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Scholastic is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Volatility and Risk
Scholastic has a beta of 1, suggesting that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Hillenbrand has a beta of 1.54, suggesting that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
70.6% of Scholastic shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Hillenbrand shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.3% of Scholastic shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Hillenbrand shares are owned by 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 Scholastic and Hillenbrand's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
Scholastic | -4.77% | -0.96% | -0.55% |
Hillenbrand | -2.39% | 18.61% | 4.82% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Scholastic and Hillenbrand, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
Scholastic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
Hillenbrand | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
Scholastic presently has a consensus target price of $24.00, suggesting a potential downside of 24.98%. Hillenbrand has a consensus target price of $53.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.85%. Given Hillenbrand's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Hillenbrand is more favorable than Scholastic.
Summary
Hillenbrand beats Scholastic on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.