Carnival (NYSE:CUK) and Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) Critical Analysis

Carnival (NYSE:CUK) and Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) are both mid-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Carnival and Madison Square Garden”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carnival	$26.62 billion	0.20	$2.76 billion	$2.00	14.37
Madison Square Garden	$1.04 billion	6.68	-$22.44 million	($0.98)	-294.86

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

Profitability

This table compares Carnival and Madison Square Garden’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carnival	10.37%	28.39%	6.09%
Madison Square Garden	-2.31%	N/A	-1.60%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.8% of Carnival shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.9% of Madison Square Garden shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Carnival shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.1% of Madison Square Garden 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.

Volatility and Risk

Carnival has a beta of 2.54, indicating that its share price is 154% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Madison Square Garden has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Carnival and Madison Square Garden, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carnival	0	1	0	0	2.00
Madison Square Garden	1	4	5	0	2.40

Madison Square Garden has a consensus target price of $261.33, indicating a potential downside of 9.56%. Given Madison Square Garden’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Madison Square Garden is more favorable than Carnival.

Summary

Carnival beats Madison Square Garden on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Carnival

Carnival Plc operates as a global cruise and vacation company. The firm offers holiday and vacation products to a customer base that is broadly varied in terms of cultures, languages and leisure-time preferences. It operates through the North America and Australia (NAA), Europe and Asia (EA), Cruise Support, and Tour and Other segments. The NAA segment includes Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, P and O Cruises (Australia), Princess and Seabourn. The EA segment includes AIDA, Costa, Cunard, and P and O Cruises (UK). The Cruise Support segment includes a portfolio of port destinations and other services, all of which are operated for the benefit of cruise brands. The Tour and Other segment represents the hotel and transportation operations of Holland America Princess Alaska Tours and other operations. The company was founded on July 19, 2000 and is headquartered in Southampton, the United Kingdom.

About Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. operates as a professional sports company in the United States. The company owns and operates a portfolio of assets that consists of the New York Knickerbockers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. Its other professional franchises include development league teams, the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League and the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League. The company also owns Knicks Gaming, an esports franchise that competes in the NBA 2K League. In addition, it operates professional sports team performance centers, the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh. The company was formerly known as The Madison Square Garden Company. Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in New York, New York.