Critical Contrast: Haverty Furniture Companies (HVT) and The Competition

Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) is one of 14 publicly-traded companies in the “RETAIL – HOME FRN” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Haverty Furniture Companies to related companies based on the strength of its risk, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.1% of shares of all “RETAIL – HOME FRN” companies are owned by institutional investors. 8.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of shares of all “RETAIL – HOME FRN” companies 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.

Volatility and Risk

Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Haverty Furniture Companies’ competitors have a beta of 1.46, meaning that their average stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.1%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays out 101.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “RETAIL – HOME FRN” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out 49.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Haverty Furniture Companies has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Haverty Furniture Companies	2.96%	6.94%	3.29%
Haverty Furniture Companies Competitors	6.52%	33.77%	8.67%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Haverty Furniture Companies and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Haverty Furniture Companies	0	1	0	0	2.00
Haverty Furniture Companies Competitors	173	1319	2030	38	2.54

As a group, “RETAIL – HOME FRN” companies have a potential upside of 19.20%. Given Haverty Furniture Companies’ competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Haverty Furniture Companies has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Haverty Furniture Companies	$722.90 million	$19.96 million	16.53
Haverty Furniture Companies Competitors	$26.26 billion	$2.36 billion	16.87

Haverty Furniture Companies’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Haverty Furniture Companies. Haverty Furniture Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies competitors beat Haverty Furniture Companies on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

About Haverty Furniture Companies

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of residential furniture and accessories in the United States. The company offers furniture merchandise under the Havertys brand name. It also provides custom upholstery products and eclectic looks; and mattress product lines under the Tempur-Pedic, Serta, Sealy, and Stearns and Foster names. The company sells home furnishings through its retail stores, as well as through its website. Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.