Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) vs. Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) Head to Head Comparison

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

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Lifetime Brands”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.61 billion	0.22	-$65.82 million	($0.32)	-32.21
Lifetime Brands	$647.93 million	0.30	-$26.94 million	($1.27)	-6.76

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Barnes & Noble Education and Lifetime Brands, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barnes & Noble Education	1	0	0	0	1.00
Lifetime Brands	1	1	1	1	2.50

Lifetime Brands has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential downside of 18.47%. Given Lifetime Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lifetime Brands is more favorable than Barnes & Noble Education.

Risk & Volatility

Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.31, meaning that its stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifetime Brands has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Lifetime Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barnes & Noble Education	-0.57%	-20.37%	-5.70%
Lifetime Brands	-4.22%	8.01%	2.76%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 44.4% of Lifetime Brands shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lifetime Brands beats Barnes & Noble Education on 11 of the 15 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 Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc. designs, sources, and sells branded kitchenware, tableware, and other products for use in the home in the worldwide. The company provides kitchenware products, including kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery, kitchen scales, thermometers, cutting boards, shears, cookware, pantryware, spice racks, and bakeware; and tableware products comprising dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and giftware. It also provides home solutions, such as thermal beverageware, bath scales, weather and outdoor household, food storage, neoprene travel, and home décor products. The company owns or licenses various brands, including the Farberware, Mikasa, Taylor, KitchenAid, Pfaltzgraff, BUILT NY, Rabbit, Kamenstein, S’well, and Fred & Friends. It serves mass market merchants, specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, grocery stores, off-price retailers, food service distributors, food and beverage outlets, and e-commerce. The company sells its products directly, as well as through its retail websites. Lifetime Brands, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Garden City, New York.