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 compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Does the media favor AEO or CASY?

In the previous week, Casey's General Stores had 13 more articles in the media than American Eagle Outfitters. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Casey's General Stores and 8 mentions for American Eagle Outfitters. Casey's General Stores' average media sentiment score of 1.44 beat American Eagle Outfitters' score of 0.15 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	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Casey's General Stores	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AEO or CASY more profitable?

American Eagle Outfitters has a net margin of 3.74% compared to Casey's General Stores' net margin of 3.54%. Casey's General Stores' return on equity of 16.73% beat American Eagle Outfitters' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Eagle Outfitters	3.74%	13.67%	5.80%
Casey's General Stores	3.54%	16.73%	7.15%

Do analysts prefer AEO or CASY?

American Eagle Outfitters presently has a consensus target price of $14.72, indicating a potential downside of 9.25%. Casey's General Stores has a consensus target price of $529.10, indicating a potential downside of 6.00%. Given Casey's General Stores' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Casey's General Stores is more favorable than American Eagle Outfitters.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Eagle Outfitters	3 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86
Casey's General Stores	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73

Which has higher valuation & 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	0.52	$329.38M	$1.04	15.60
Casey's General Stores	$15.94B	1.31	$546.52M	$15.58	36.13

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 3.1%. Casey's General Stores pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. American Eagle Outfitters pays out 48.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Casey's General Stores pays out 14.6% 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, AEO or CASY?

American Eagle Outfitters has a beta of 1.6, suggesting that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casey's General Stores has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of 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 company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Casey's General Stores 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.

Summary

Casey's General Stores beats American Eagle Outfitters on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.