Head-To-Head Contrast: Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) versus Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT)

Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) and Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Children’s Place and Boot Barn”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Children’s Place	$1.34 billion	0.12	-$57.82 million	($0.86)	-8.38
Boot Barn	$2.07 billion	2.80	$180.94 million	$6.76	28.11

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Children’s Place and Boot Barn, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Children’s Place	1	1	0	0	1.50
Boot Barn	0	4	11	1	2.81

Children’s Place presently has a consensus target price of $7.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.91%. Boot Barn has a consensus target price of $195.25, suggesting a potential upside of 2.76%. Given Boot Barn’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Boot Barn is more favorable than Children’s Place.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Children’s Place	-2.04%	-10.32%	-2.45%
Boot Barn	10.05%	18.41%	10.20%

Volatility & Risk

Children’s Place has a beta of 2.26, indicating that its stock price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Boot Barn has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its stock price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Children’s Place pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 31.1%. Boot Barn pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Children’s Place pays out -260.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Boot Barn pays out 7.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Children’s Place is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Boot Barn beats Children’s Place on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Children’s Place

The Children’s Place, Inc. engages in the provision of apparel, footwear, accessories, and other items for children. The firm also designs contracts to manufacture and sell fashionable and value-priced merchandise under the brand names of The Children’s Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree. It operates through The Children’s Place U.S. and The Children’s Place International segments. The Children’s Place U.S. segment refers to the company’s U.S. and Puerto Rico-based stores and revenue from its U.S. based wholesale business. The Children’s Place International segment is involved in the Canadian-based stores, revenue from the company’s Canadian-based wholesale business, as well as revenue from international franchisees. The company was founded by David Pulver and Clinton A. Clark in 1969 and is headquartered in Secaucus, NJ.

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.