Comparing Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Growlife (OTCMKTS:PHOT)

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Growlife (OTCMKTS:PHOT) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Barnes & Noble Education and Growlife, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barnes & Noble Education	1	0	0	0	1.00
Growlife	0	0	0	0	0.00

Profitability

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Growlife’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barnes & Noble Education	N/A	N/A	N/A
Growlife	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.78, meaning that its share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Growlife has a beta of 2.3, meaning that its share price is 130% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Growlife”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.57 billion	0.18	-$63.21 million	($15.50)	-0.53
Growlife	N/A	N/A	-$4.48 million	($0.16)	0.00

Growlife has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Barnes & Noble Education. Barnes & Noble Education is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Growlife, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of Growlife shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Growlife beats Barnes & Noble Education on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barnes & Noble Education

Barnes and Noble Education, Inc. engages in the management and operation of bookstore chains in universities. It operates through the Retail and Wholesale segments. The Retail segment operates college, university, and K-12 school bookstores, physical bookstores, and virtual bookstores. The Wholesale segment sells and distributes new and used textbooks to physical bookstores. The company was founded by Leonard S, Riggio in 1965 and is headquartered in Basking Ridge, NJ.

About Growlife

GrowLife, Inc. focuses on the functional mushroom business. It processes, stores, markets, distributes, and sells fresh and dried mushroom products. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.