Financial Comparison: RCI Hospitality (NASDAQ:RICK) vs. Viking (NYSE:VIK)

RCI Hospitality (NASDAQ:RICK) and Viking (NYSE:VIK) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Volatility and Risk

RCI Hospitality has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viking has a beta of 2.24, indicating that its stock price is 124% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for RCI Hospitality and Viking, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RCI Hospitality	1	0	1	0	2.00
Viking	1	6	9	0	2.50

RCI Hospitality currently has a consensus price target of $98.00, suggesting a potential upside of 249.75%. Viking has a consensus price target of $58.93, suggesting a potential downside of 3.50%. Given RCI Hospitality’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe RCI Hospitality is more favorable than Viking.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

53.8% of RCI Hospitality shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.8% of Viking shares are held by institutional investors. 9.6% of RCI Hospitality shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares RCI Hospitality and Viking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RCI Hospitality	$295.60 million	0.83	$3.01 million	$1.86	15.06
Viking	$5.33 billion	5.07	$152.33 million	$1.85	33.01

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

Profitability

This table compares RCI Hospitality and Viking’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RCI Hospitality	5.88%	6.19%	2.81%
Viking	13.99%	-374.71%	8.94%

Summary

Viking beats RCI Hospitality on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About RCI Hospitality

RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the hospitality and related businesses in the United States. It operates in Nightclubs, Bombshells, and Media Group segments. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries own and/or operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals under the Rick's Cabaret, Jaguars Club, Tootsie's Cabaret, XTC Cabaret, Club Onyx, Hoops Cabaret and Sports Bar, Scarlett's Cabaret, Temptations Adult Cabaret, Foxy's Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret, Downtown Cabaret, Cabaret East, The Seville, Silver City Cabaret, and Kappa Men's Club. Wholly-owned subsidiaries also operate restaurants and sports bars under the Bombshells Restaurant & Bar brand; and dance clubs under the Studio 80 brand. As of February 11, 2019, the company operated 46 units, including 39 nightclub units and 7 Bombshell units. In addition, it owns two national industry trade publications serving the adult nightclubs industry and the adult retail products industry; a national industry convention and tradeshow; and two national industry award shows, as well as approximately a dozen industry and social media Websites. The company founded in 1983 as Rick's Cabaret International, Inc., changed its name to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. in August 2014, and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Pembroke, Bermuda.