Critical Analysis: Ohio Art (OTCMKTS:OART) and Latham Group (NASDAQ:SWIM)

Ohio Art (OTCMKTS:OART) and Latham Group (NASDAQ:SWIM) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, earnings, valuation and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ohio Art and Latham Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ohio Art	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Latham Group	$545.91 million	1.61	$11.12 million	$0.05	149.60

Latham Group has higher revenue and earnings than Ohio Art.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Ohio Art and Latham Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ohio Art	0	0	0	0	0.00
Latham Group	3	2	2	0	1.86

Latham Group has a consensus target price of $7.50, suggesting a potential upside of 0.27%. Given Latham Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Latham Group is more favorable than Ohio Art.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

84.0% of Latham Group shares are held by institutional investors. 44.6% of Ohio Art shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Latham Group shares 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.

Profitability

This table compares Ohio Art and Latham Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ohio Art	N/A	N/A	N/A
Latham Group	0.92%	1.32%	0.63%

Risk and Volatility

Ohio Art has a beta of 0.09, meaning that its stock price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Latham Group has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Latham Group beats Ohio Art on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ohio Art

The Ohio Art Company, Inc. offers lithography services for metal packaging and products. It provides custom metal signs, metal prints, custom tins, and metal packaging services. The company was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Bryan, Ohio.

About Latham Group

Latham Group, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets in-ground residential swimming pools in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. It offers a portfolio of pools and related products, including in-ground swimming pools that include fiber glass and packaged pools; and pool covers and liners under the Latham, Narellan, CoverStar, Radiant, and GLI brand names. The company was formerly known as Latham Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Latham Group, Inc. in March 2021. Latham Group, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Latham, New York.