Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) & Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA) Head to Head Comparison

Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) and Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Academy Sports and Outdoors and Escalade”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Academy Sports and Outdoors	$5.93 billion	0.60	$418.45 million	$5.44	9.92
Escalade	$251.51 million	0.74	$12.99 million	$0.91	14.73

Academy Sports and Outdoors has higher revenue and earnings than Escalade. Academy Sports and Outdoors is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Escalade, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.2% of Escalade shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Academy Sports and Outdoors shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 28.8% of Escalade shares are owned 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.

Profitability

This table compares Academy Sports and Outdoors and Escalade’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Academy Sports and Outdoors	6.55%	19.62%	7.70%
Escalade	5.30%	6.86%	5.09%

Volatility & Risk

Academy Sports and Outdoors has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Escalade has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Academy Sports and Outdoors and Escalade, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Academy Sports and Outdoors	0	8	9	0	2.53
Escalade	0	0	0	0	0.00

Academy Sports and Outdoors presently has a consensus price target of $58.2353, suggesting a potential upside of 7.94%. Given Academy Sports and Outdoors’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Academy Sports and Outdoors is more favorable than Escalade.

Dividends

Academy Sports and Outdoors pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Escalade pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Academy Sports and Outdoors pays out 9.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Escalade pays out 65.9% 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. Academy Sports and Outdoors has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Summary

Academy Sports and Outdoors beats Escalade on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Academy Sports and Outdoors

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a sporting goods and outdoor recreational retailer in the United States. The company outdoor division comprises camping products, such as coolers and drinkware, and camping accessories and equipment,; fishing products, including marine equipment and fishing rods, reels, and baits and equipment; and hunting products, which includes firearms, ammunition, archery and archery equipment, camouflage apparel, waders, shooting accessories, gun safes, optics, airguns, and hunting equipment. Its sports and recreation division offers fitness equipment, fitness accessories, and nutrition supplies; team and specialty sports equipment, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, racket sports, volleyball, backpacks, and sports bags; recreation products, which includes patio furniture, outdoor cooking, trampolines, play sets, watersports, and pet equipment, as well as wheeled goods including bicycles, skateboards, and other ride-on toys; and electronics and watches, as well as front-end products, such as consumables, batteries, etc. The company's apparel division provides outdoor and seasonal apparel, denim, work apparel, graphic t-shirts, and accessories; boys and girls outdoor, and athletic apparel; sporting and fitness apparel; and professional and collegiate team licensed apparel and accessories. Its footwear division offers casual shoes, slippers, seasonal footwear, and socks; work and western boots, shoes, and hunting footwear; boys and girls footwear; athletic footwear, such as running shoes, athletic lifestyle, and training shoes; and team and specialty sports footwear, and slides. The company sells its products under the Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet, and Freely brand names. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Katy, Texas.

About Escalade

Escalade, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, imports, and sells sporting goods in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company provides various sporting goods brands in basketball goals, archery, indoor and outdoor game recreation, and fitness products. It offers archery products under the Bear Archery, Trophy Ridge, Whisker Biscuit, Cajun Bowfishing, Karnage, SIK, BearX, and Bear Traditional brand names; table tennis products under the STIGA and Ping-Pong brands; basketball goals under the Goalrilla, Goaliath, Silverback, Hoopstar, and Goalsetter brand names; and pickleball under the Onix, DURA, and Pickleball Now brands. The company also provides play systems under the Woodplay, Jack & June, and Childlife brands; fitness products under the STEP, Lifeline, Kettleworx, Natural Fitness, USW, and PER4M brand names; safety products under the USWeight brand; hockey and soccer game tables under the Triumph Sports, Atomic, American Legend, Air Hockey, and HJ Scott brands; and billiard tables and accessories under the American Heritage Billiards, Brunswick Billiards, Gold Crown, Centennial, Cue&Case, Lucasi, Mizerak, PureX, Rage, Players, Minnesota Fats, and Mosconi brand names. In addition, it offers darting products under the Unicorn, Winmau, DMI, Prodigy, Arachnid, Accudart, and Nodor brands; water sports products under the RAVE Sports brand; and outdoor game products under the Victory Tailgate, Triumph Sports, ACL, and Zume Games brand names. The company provides its products through sporting goods retailers, specialty dealers, online retailers, direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, traditional department stores, and mass merchants. Escalade, Incorporated was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.