Reviewing Malibu Boats (NASDAQ:MBUU) and Amer Sports (NYSE:AS)

Malibu Boats (NASDAQ:MBUU) and Amer Sports (NYSE:AS) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Malibu Boats and Amer Sports, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Malibu Boats	2	6	1	0	1.89
Amer Sports	0	4	14	1	2.84

Malibu Boats currently has a consensus target price of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.39%. Amer Sports has a consensus target price of $43.49, indicating a potential upside of 40.76%. Given Amer Sports’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Amer Sports is more favorable than Malibu Boats.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Malibu Boats and Amer Sports”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Malibu Boats	$807.56 million	0.68	$14.88 million	$0.77	37.29
Amer Sports	$5.18 billion	3.30	$72.60 million	$0.41	75.35

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.4% of Malibu Boats shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.3% of Amer Sports shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Malibu Boats shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Malibu Boats has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amer Sports has a beta of 3.04, indicating that its share price is 204% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Malibu Boats and Amer Sports’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Malibu Boats	1.84%	4.93%	3.42%
Amer Sports	3.93%	6.87%	3.94%

Summary

Amer Sports beats Malibu Boats on 12 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 Amer Sports

Amer Sports, Inc. designs, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells sports equipment, apparel, footwear, and accessories in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, China, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technical Apparel, Outdoor Performance, and Ball & Racquet Sports. The Technical Apparel segment offers outdoor apparel, footwear, and accessories which includes climbing gear. The Outdoor Performance segment provides hiking and running footwear, functional apparel, skiing and snowboarding gear, and lifestyle footwear. The Ball & Racquet Sports segment offers sports equipment for tennis, baseball, american football, basketball, golf, and various other professional and recreational sports. This segment provides custom-fitting protective gear and apparel for baseball, softball, football, and lacrosse. It sells its products under the Arc'teryx, PeakPerformance, Salomon, Atomic, Armada, ENVE, Wilson, Louisville Slugger, DeMarini, EvoShield, and ATEC brands. The company distributes its products through retail stores, general sporting goods retailers, specialty stores, independently operated partner stores, and distributors, as well as its e-commerce websites, and retailer-owned and third-party e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Amer Sports Management Holding (Cayman) Limited and changed its name to Amer Sports, Inc. in August 2023. Amer Sports, Inc. was founded in 1950 and is based in Helsinki, Finland.