Comparing Brilliant Earth Group (NASDAQ:BRLT) & Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED)

Barnes & Noble Education (NYSE:BNED) and Brilliant Earth Group (NASDAQ:BRLT) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Barnes & Noble Education and Brilliant Earth Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barnes & Noble Education	1	1	2	0	2.25
Brilliant Earth Group	1	7	0	0	1.88

Barnes & Noble Education currently has a consensus price target of $17.25, suggesting a potential upside of 62.12%. Brilliant Earth Group has a consensus price target of $1.74, suggesting a potential upside of 24.11%. Given Barnes & Noble Education’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Barnes & Noble Education is more favorable than Brilliant Earth Group.

Risk and Volatility

Barnes & Noble Education has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brilliant Earth Group has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Brilliant Earth Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barnes & Noble Education	1.29%	8.77%	2.66%
Brilliant Earth Group	-0.66%	-15.48%	-5.99%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

38.5% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.4% of Brilliant Earth Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Barnes & Noble Education shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 83.2% of Brilliant Earth Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Barnes & Noble Education and Brilliant Earth Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barnes & Noble Education	$1.71 billion	0.22	$16.87 million	$0.64	16.62
Brilliant Earth Group	$437.48 million	0.33	-$3.63 million	($0.29)	-4.83

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

Summary

Barnes & Noble Education beats Brilliant Earth Group on 10 of the 14 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 Brilliant Earth Group

Brilliant Earth Group, Inc. designs, procures, and sells diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry in the United States and internationally. The company’s product assortment and merchandise include a collection of diamond engagement rings, wedding and anniversary rings, gemstone rings, and fine jewelry. It sells directly to consumers through its omnichannel sales platform, including e-commerce and showrooms. Brilliant Earth Group, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.