American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) Competitors

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) and Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, media sentiment, profitability and risk.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in AEO or CASY?

97.3% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.6% of Casey's General Stores shares are held by institutional investors. 8.7% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Casey's General Stores shares are held 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.

Does the media prefer AEO or CASY?

In the previous week, American Eagle Outfitters had 11 more articles in the media than Casey's General Stores. MarketBeat recorded 30 mentions for American Eagle Outfitters and 19 mentions for Casey's General Stores. Casey's General Stores' average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat American Eagle Outfitters' score of 0.65 indicating that Casey's General Stores is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Eagle Outfitters	15 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Casey's General Stores	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, AEO or CASY?

American Eagle Outfitters has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casey's General Stores has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AEO or CASY a better dividend stock?

American Eagle Outfitters pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Casey's General Stores pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. American Eagle Outfitters pays out 51.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Casey's General Stores pays out 15.6% 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. American Eagle Outfitters has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Casey's General Stores has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate AEO or CASY?

American Eagle Outfitters currently has a consensus price target of $13.44, indicating a potential upside of 2.86%. Casey's General Stores has a consensus price target of $467.33, indicating a potential downside of 5.39%. Given American Eagle Outfitters' higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe American Eagle Outfitters is more favorable than Casey's General Stores.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Eagle Outfitters	3 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83
Casey's General Stores	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.58

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AEO or CASY?

Casey's General Stores has higher revenue and earnings than American Eagle Outfitters. American Eagle Outfitters is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Casey's General Stores, 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
American Eagle Outfitters	$5.33B	0.42	$329.38M	$0.98	13.34
Casey's General Stores	$15.94B	1.15	$546.52M	$14.64	33.74

Is AEO or CASY more profitable?

American Eagle Outfitters has a net margin of 3.73% compared to Casey's General Stores' net margin of 3.43%. Casey's General Stores' return on equity of 16.28% beat American Eagle Outfitters' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Eagle Outfitters	3.73%	13.34%	5.99%
Casey's General Stores	3.43%	16.28%	7.13%

Summary

Casey's General Stores beats American Eagle Outfitters on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.