Contrasting J.Jill (NYSE:JILL) & Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT)

J.Jill (NYSE:JILL) and Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for J.Jill and Boot Barn, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
J.Jill	2	2	2	0	2.00
Boot Barn	0	4	11	0	2.73

J.Jill currently has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.82%. Boot Barn has a consensus target price of $206.08, suggesting a potential upside of 14.08%. Given Boot Barn’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Boot Barn is more favorable than J.Jill.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares J.Jill and Boot Barn”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
J.Jill	$610.86 million	0.39	$39.48 million	$2.19	7.29
Boot Barn	$1.91 billion	2.88	$180.94 million	$6.76	26.72

Boot Barn has higher revenue and earnings than J.Jill. J.Jill is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Boot Barn, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares J.Jill and Boot Barn’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
J.Jill	5.60%	36.33%	9.75%
Boot Barn	10.05%	18.11%	9.94%

Risk and Volatility

J.Jill has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Boot Barn has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

40.7% of J.Jill shares are held by institutional investors. 6.7% of J.Jill shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Boot Barn shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Boot Barn beats J.Jill on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About J.Jill

J.Jill, Inc. operates as an omnichannel retailer for women's apparel under the J.Jill brand in the United States. It offers apparel, footwear, and accessories, including scarves and jewelry. The company markets its products through retail stores, website, and catalogs. J.Jill, Inc. was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts.

About Boot Barn

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc., a lifestyle retail chain, operates specialty retail stores in the United States. The company's specialty retail stores offer western and work-related footwear, apparel, and accessories for men, women, and kids. It offers boots, shirts, jackets, hats, belts and belt buckles, handbags, western-style jewelry, rugged footwear, outerwear, overalls, denim, and flame-resistant and high-visibility clothing. The company also provides gifts and home merchandise. The company also sells its products through e-commerce websites, including bootbarn.com; sheplers.com; and countryoutfitter.com. The company was formerly known as WW Top Investment Corporation and changed its name to Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. in June 2014. Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Irvine, California.