Head-To-Head Survey: Clarus (NASDAQ:CLAR) & Shimano (OTCMKTS:SMNNY)

Clarus (NASDAQ:CLAR) and Shimano (OTCMKTS:SMNNY) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

Clarus has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shimano has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Clarus and Shimano’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clarus	-17.70%	-0.11%	-0.08%
Shimano	7.67%	2.85%	2.64%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.3% of Clarus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Shimano shares are held by institutional investors. 23.5% of Clarus shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Clarus pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Shimano pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Clarus pays out -8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Shimano pays out 50.0% 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. Clarus is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Clarus and Shimano”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clarus	$250.44 million	0.49	-$46.56 million	($1.16)	-2.74
Shimano	$3.12 billion	2.96	$227.74 million	$0.26	41.05

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Clarus and Shimano, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clarus	1	3	1	0	2.00
Shimano	0	0	0	0	0.00

Clarus presently has a consensus target price of $3.63, suggesting a potential upside of 14.26%. Given Clarus’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Clarus is more favorable than Shimano.

About Clarus

Clarus Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes outdoor equipment and lifestyle products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Outdoor and Adventure. The Outdoor segment offers apparels, such as shells, insulation, midlayers, pants, and logowear; rock-climbing footwear and equipment, including carabiners, protection devices, harnesses, belay devices, helmets, and ice-climbing gears; technical backpacks and day packs; trekking poles; headlamps and lanterns; gloves and mittens; and skis, ski poles, ski skins, avalanche airbag systems, avalanche transceivers, shovels, and probes. This segment offers its products for climbing, mountaineering, trail running, backpacking, skiing, and other outdoor recreation activities under the Black Diamond Equipment and PIEPS brands. The Adventure segment offers engineered automotive roof racks, trays, mounting systems, luggage boxes, carriers, recovery boards, and accessories under the Rhino-Rack brand; and overlanding and off-road vehicle recovery and extraction tracks for the overland and the off-road market under the MAXTRAX brand, as well as sells and retails overlanding and off-road vehicle under the TRED brand. It markets and distributes its products through independent specialty stores and specialty chains, sporting goods and outdoor recreation stores, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers; and independent distributors, as well as through its websites. The company was formerly known as Black Diamond, Inc. and changed its name to Clarus Corporation in August 2017. The company was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Shimano

Shimano Inc. develops, produces, and distributes bicycle components, fishing tackles, and rowing equipment. It has operations in Japan, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Oceania. Shimano Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Sakai, Japan.