Aaron's (AAN) Competitors

Aaron's (NYSE:AAN) and Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Do analysts recommend AAN or HVT?

Aaron's currently has a consensus price target of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 35.61%. Haverty Furniture Companies has a consensus price target of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 58.39%. Given Haverty Furniture Companies' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Haverty Furniture Companies is more favorable than Aaron's.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aaron's	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Haverty Furniture Companies	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media favor AAN or HVT?

In the previous week, Aaron's had 11 more articles in the media than Haverty Furniture Companies. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Aaron's and 3 mentions for Haverty Furniture Companies. Aaron's' average media sentiment score of 0.43 beat Haverty Furniture Companies' score of -0.33 indicating that Aaron's is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Aaron's	3 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Haverty Furniture Companies	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AAN or HVT?

Aaron's received 145 more outperform votes than Haverty Furniture Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.47% of users gave Aaron's an outperform vote while only 64.47% of users gave Haverty Furniture Companies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Aaron's	Outperform Votes 537 70.47%	Underperform Votes 225 29.53%
Haverty Furniture Companies	Outperform Votes 392 64.47%	Underperform Votes 216 35.53%

Is AAN or HVT a better dividend stock?

Aaron's pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Aaron's pays out -63.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Haverty Furniture Companies pays out 46.5% 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. Aaron's is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in AAN or HVT?

92.0% of Aaron's shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of Aaron's shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, AAN or HVT?

Aaron's has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.54, suggesting that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AAN or HVT more profitable?

Haverty Furniture Companies has a net margin of 5.64% compared to Aaron's' net margin of -1.15%. Haverty Furniture Companies' return on equity of 14.98% beat Aaron's' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aaron's	-1.15%	0.02%	0.01%
Haverty Furniture Companies	5.64%	14.98%	7.05%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, AAN or HVT?

Haverty Furniture Companies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Aaron's. Aaron's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Haverty Furniture Companies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aaron's	$2.10B	0.12	$2.82M	-$0.79	-10.73
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13M	0.54	$56.32M	$2.75	10.33

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies beats Aaron's on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.