Head to Head Review: PLBY Group (NASDAQ:PLBY) and Malibu Boats (NASDAQ:MBUU)

Malibu Boats (NASDAQ:MBUU) and PLBY Group (NASDAQ:PLBY) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Malibu Boats and PLBY Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Malibu Boats	1	6	2	0	2.11
PLBY Group	1	0	0	1	2.50

Malibu Boats presently has a consensus target price of $34.67, suggesting a potential upside of 2.93%. PLBY Group has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 63.93%. Given PLBY Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe PLBY Group is more favorable than Malibu Boats.

Profitability

This table compares Malibu Boats and PLBY Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Malibu Boats	2.31%	5.28%	3.66%
PLBY Group	-24.10%	N/A	-8.22%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.4% of Malibu Boats shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of PLBY Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Malibu Boats shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 38.3% of PLBY Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Malibu Boats has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PLBY Group has a beta of 2.62, indicating that its stock price is 162% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Malibu Boats and PLBY Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Malibu Boats	$807.56 million	0.80	$14.88 million	$0.98	34.37
PLBY Group	$119.51 million	1.65	-$79.40 million	($0.33)	-5.55

Malibu Boats has higher revenue and earnings than PLBY Group. PLBY Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Malibu Boats, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Malibu Boats beats PLBY Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Malibu Boats

Malibu Boats, Inc. designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and sells a range of recreational powerboats. It operates through three segments: Malibu, Saltwater Fishing, and Cobalt. The company provides performance sport boats, and sterndrive and outboard boats under the Malibu, Axis, Pursuit, Maverick, Cobia, Pathfinder, Hewes, and Cobalt brands. Its products are used for a range of recreational boating activities, including water sports, such as water skiing, wakeboarding, and wake surfing; and general recreational boating and fishing. The company sells its products through independent dealers in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand. Malibu Boats, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is based in Loudon, Tennessee.

About PLBY Group

PLBY Group, Inc. operates as a pleasure and leisure company in the United States, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Licensing, Direct-to-Consumer, and Digital Subscriptions and Content. The company offers sexual wellness products, such as lingerie, bedroom accessories, intimacy products, and other adult products; style and apparel products for men and women; digital entertainment and lifestyle products; and beauty and grooming products for men and women, such as skincare, haircare, bath and body, grooming, cosmetics, and fragrance. It also owns and operates digital commerce retail platforms, such as playboy.com, honeybirdette.com, yandy.com, and loversstores.com; and Honey Birdette and Lovers retail stores. In addition, the company licenses Playboy name, Rabbit Head Design, and other trademarks and related properties; and programming content to cable television operators and direct-to-home satellite television operators. Further, the company business covers the subscription sale of playboyplus.com and playboy.tv, which are online content platforms. It offers its products under its flagship brand Playboy. PLBY Group, Inc. is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.