Head to Head Comparison: Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) and Alliance Entertainment (NASDAQ:AENT)

Alliance Entertainment (NASDAQ:AENT) and Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Alliance Entertainment and Pool, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alliance Entertainment	0	2	1	0	2.33
Pool	2	6	5	0	2.23

Alliance Entertainment currently has a consensus price target of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 72.12%. Pool has a consensus price target of $235.67, indicating a potential upside of 17.50%. Given Alliance Entertainment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Alliance Entertainment is more favorable than Pool.

Profitability

This table compares Alliance Entertainment and Pool’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alliance Entertainment	2.01%	19.91%	5.71%
Pool	7.40%	32.74%	10.91%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alliance Entertainment and Pool”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alliance Entertainment	$1.06 billion	0.28	$15.08 million	$0.44	13.20
Pool	$5.29 billion	1.38	$406.40 million	$10.87	18.45

Pool has higher revenue and earnings than Alliance Entertainment. Alliance Entertainment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pool, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.3% of Alliance Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.0% of Pool shares are owned by institutional investors. 77.5% of Alliance Entertainment shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Pool shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Alliance Entertainment has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pool has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pool beats Alliance Entertainment on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alliance Entertainment

Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation operates as a wholesaler, distributor, and e-commerce provider for the entertainment industry worldwide. It offers vinyl records, video games, digital video discs, blu-rays, toys, compact discs, collectibles, and other entertainment and consumer products. The company also provides third party logistics products and services. It distributes its physical media, entertainment products, hardware, and accessories through multi-channel strategy. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Plantation, Florida.

About Pool

Pool Corporation distributes swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products in the United States and internationally. The company offers maintenance products, including chemicals, supplies, and pool accessories; repair and replacement parts for pool equipment, such as cleaners, filters, heaters, pumps, and lights; and building materials, such as concrete, plumbing and electrical components, functional and decorative pool surfaces, decking materials, tiles, hardscapes, and natural stones for pool installations and remodeling. It also provides pool equipment and components for new pool construction and the remodeling of existing pools; irrigation and related products, such as irrigation system components, and professional turf care equipment and supplies; commercial products, including heaters, safety equipment, commercial decking equipment, and commercial pumps and filters. In addition, the company offers fiberglass pools, and hot tubs and packaged pool kits comprising walls, liners, braces, and coping for in-ground and above-ground pools; and other pool construction and recreational products comprising discretionary recreational and related outdoor living products, such as grills and components for outdoor kitchens. It serves swimming pool remodelers and builders; specialty retailers that sell swimming pool supplies; swimming pool repair and service businesses; irrigation construction and landscape maintenance contractors; and commercial pool operators and pool contractors. Pool Corporation was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana.