Analyzing Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) & Sow Good (NASDAQ:SOWG)

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Sow Good (NASDAQ:SOWG) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barnes & Noble Education	-4.46%	-2.76%	-0.55%
Sow Good	-29.42%	-20.77%	-12.05%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.7% of Sow Good shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 50.1% of Sow Good shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Barnes & Noble Education and Sow Good, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barnes & Noble Education	0	0	0	0	0.00
Sow Good	0	3	0	0	2.00

Sow Good has a consensus target price of $4.25, indicating a potential upside of 419.56%. Given Sow Good’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sow Good is more favorable than Barnes & Noble Education.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Sow Good”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.57 billion	0.25	-$63.21 million	($15.50)	-0.74
Sow Good	$31.99 million	0.29	-$3.70 million	($0.67)	-1.22

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

Risk and Volatility

Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sow Good has a beta of 1.8, indicating that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sow Good beats Barnes & Noble Education on 7 of the 13 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 Sow Good

Sow Good Inc. is engaged in producing nutritious products in the freeze-dried food industry. Sow Good Inc., formerly known as Black Ridge Oil and Gas Inc., is based in IRVING, Texas.