Head to Head Review: Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) versus Johnson Outdoors (NASDAQ:JOUT)

Academy Sports and Outdoors (NASDAQ:ASO) and Johnson Outdoors (NASDAQ:JOUT) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Academy Sports and Outdoors and Johnson Outdoors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Academy Sports and Outdoors	0	11	6	1	2.44
Johnson Outdoors	1	1	0	0	1.50

Academy Sports and Outdoors currently has a consensus price target of $59.87, suggesting a potential upside of 13.38%. Given Academy Sports and Outdoors’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Academy Sports and Outdoors is more favorable than Johnson Outdoors.

Volatility & Risk

Academy Sports and Outdoors has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Johnson Outdoors has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Academy Sports and Outdoors and Johnson Outdoors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Academy Sports and Outdoors	6.22%	17.88%	7.05%
Johnson Outdoors	-2.33%	2.52%	1.74%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.1% of Johnson Outdoors shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Academy Sports and Outdoors shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.2% of Johnson Outdoors shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Academy Sports and Outdoors pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Johnson Outdoors pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Academy Sports and Outdoors pays out 10.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Johnson Outdoors pays out -86.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Academy Sports and Outdoors has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Johnson Outdoors has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Johnson Outdoors is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Academy Sports and Outdoors and Johnson Outdoors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Academy Sports and Outdoors	$6.05 billion	0.56	$376.77 million	$5.56	9.50
Johnson Outdoors	$592.41 million	0.79	-$34.29 million	($1.52)	-29.45

Academy Sports and Outdoors has higher revenue and earnings than Johnson Outdoors. Johnson Outdoors is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Academy Sports and Outdoors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Academy Sports and Outdoors beats Johnson Outdoors on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Academy Sports and Outdoors

Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a sporting goods and outdoor recreational retailer in the United States. The company outdoor division comprises camping products, such as coolers and drinkware, and camping accessories and equipment,; fishing products, including marine equipment and fishing rods, reels, and baits and equipment; and hunting products, which includes firearms, ammunition, archery and archery equipment, camouflage apparel, waders, shooting accessories, gun safes, optics, airguns, and hunting equipment. Its sports and recreation division offers fitness equipment, fitness accessories, and nutrition supplies; team and specialty sports equipment, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, racket sports, volleyball, backpacks, and sports bags; recreation products, which includes patio furniture, outdoor cooking, trampolines, play sets, watersports, and pet equipment, as well as wheeled goods including bicycles, skateboards, and other ride-on toys; and electronics and watches, as well as front-end products, such as consumables, batteries, etc. The company's apparel division provides outdoor and seasonal apparel, denim, work apparel, graphic t-shirts, and accessories; boys and girls outdoor, and athletic apparel; sporting and fitness apparel; and professional and collegiate team licensed apparel and accessories. Its footwear division offers casual shoes, slippers, seasonal footwear, and socks; work and western boots, shoes, and hunting footwear; boys and girls footwear; athletic footwear, such as running shoes, athletic lifestyle, and training shoes; and team and specialty sports footwear, and slides. The company sells its products under the Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet, and Freely brand names. Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Katy, Texas.

About Johnson Outdoors

Johnson Outdoors Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets seasonal and outdoor recreational products for fishing worldwide. It operates through four segments: Fishing, Camping, Watercraft Recreation, and Diving. The Fishing segment offers electric motors for trolling, marine battery chargers, and shallow water anchors; sonar and GPS equipment for fish finding, navigation, and marine cartography; and downriggers for controlled-depth fishing. This segment sells its products under the Minn Kota, Humminbird, and Cannon brands through outdoor specialty and Internet retailers, retail store chains, original equipment manufacturers, and distributors. The Camping segment provides consumer, commercial, and military tents and accessories; camping stoves; other recreational camping products; and portable outdoor cooking systems. This segment sells its products under the Eureka! and Jetboil brands through specialty stores, sporting goods stores, internet retailers, and direct to consumers. The Watercraft Recreation segment offers kayaks, canoes, and paddles for family recreation, touring, angling, and tripping through independent specialty and outdoor retailers under Old Town and Carlisle brands. The Diving segment manufactures and markets underwater diving and snorkeling equipment, such as regulators, buoyancy compensators, dive computers and gauges, wetsuits, masks, fins, snorkels, and accessories through independent specialty dive stores and diving magazines under the SCUBAPRO brand name. This segment also provides regular maintenance, product repair, diving education, and travel program services; and sells diving gear to dive training centers, resorts, and public safety units. It sells its products through websites. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin.