Reviewing GrowGeneration (GRWG) and Its Rivals

GrowGeneration (NASDAQ:GRWG) is one of 285 public companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare GrowGeneration to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares GrowGeneration and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GrowGeneration	-10.07%	-17.44%	-11.52%
GrowGeneration Competitors	-2.02%	-28.75%	3.24%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for GrowGeneration and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GrowGeneration	1	1	1	0	2.00
GrowGeneration Competitors	3526	15196	21157	548	2.46

GrowGeneration presently has a consensus price target of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 30.55%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 11.78%. Given GrowGeneration’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe GrowGeneration is more favorable than its competitors.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

36.0% of GrowGeneration shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.0% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of GrowGeneration shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.0% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

GrowGeneration has a beta of 2.51, suggesting that its stock price is 151% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GrowGeneration’s competitors have a beta of 1.78, suggesting that their average stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares GrowGeneration and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
GrowGeneration	$166.68 million	-$24.05 million	-7.09
GrowGeneration Competitors	$7.06 billion	$390.09 million	14.67

GrowGeneration’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than GrowGeneration. GrowGeneration is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

GrowGeneration competitors beat GrowGeneration on 10 of the 13 factors compared.

GrowGeneration Company Profile

GrowGeneration Corp., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates retail hydroponic and organic gardening stores in the United States. The company engages in the marketing and distribution of nutrients, additives, growing media, lighting, and environmental control systems, as well as other indoor and outdoor growing products. It operates a chain of stores in California, Colorado, Michigan, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, Montana, New York, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona, Rhode Island, Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, and New Mexico, as well as growgeneration.com, an online superstore for cultivators, a wholesale business for resellers, HRG Distribution, and benching, racking, and storage solutions and MMI. The company was formerly known as Easylife Corp. GrowGeneration Corp. was founded in 2008 and is based in Greenwood Village, Colorado.