Contrasting Urban Outfitters (URBN) and The Competition

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Urban Outfitters and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Urban Outfitters	0	8	9	0	2.53
Urban Outfitters Competitors	3667	15572	21603	589	2.46

Urban Outfitters presently has a consensus target price of $90.54, suggesting a potential downside of 1.35%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 5.28%. Given Urban Outfitters’ competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Urban Outfitters has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.6% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by institutional investors. 32.1% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Urban Outfitters	8.79%	18.64%	10.34%
Urban Outfitters Competitors	-3.69%	-13.97%	3.17%

Volatility & Risk

Urban Outfitters has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Urban Outfitters’ competitors have a beta of 1.91, meaning that their average stock price is 91% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Urban Outfitters and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Urban Outfitters	$6.17 billion	$464.92 million	14.32
Urban Outfitters Competitors	$7.06 billion	$386.47 million	32.77

Urban Outfitters’ competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters 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

Urban Outfitters beats its competitors on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Urban Outfitters Company Profile

Urban Outfitters, Inc. engages in the retail and wholesale of general consumer products. The company operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Nuuly. It operates Urban Outfitters stores, which offer women's and men's fashion apparel, activewear, intimates, footwear, accessories, home goods, electronics, and beauty products for young adults aged 18 to 28; and Anthropologie stores that provide women's apparel, accessories, intimates, shoes, and home furnishings, as well as gifts, decorative items, and beauty and wellness products for women aged 28 to 45. The company also operates Terrain stores that provide lifestyle home products, garden and outdoor living products, antiques, live plants, flowers, wellness products, and accessories. In addition, it operates Free People retail stores, which offer casual women's apparel, intimates, activewear, shoes, accessories, home products, gifts, and beauty and wellness products for young women aged 25 to 30; and restaurants, as well as women's apparel subscription rental service under the Nuuly brand. Further, the company is involved in the wholesale of young women's contemporary casual apparel, intimates, activewear, and shoes under the Free People brand; and apparel collections under the Urban Outfitters brand. The company serves its customers directly through retail stores, websites, mobile applications, catalogs and customer contact centers, franchisee-owned stores, and department and specialty stores, as well as social media and third-party digital platforms. Urban Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.