Haverty Furniture Companies (HVT) Competitors

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

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

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

Is HVT or AAN a better dividend stock?

Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Aaron's pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.9%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays out 46.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aaron's pays out -63.3% 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HVT or AAN?

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

Which has more volatility & risk, HVT or AAN?

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

Is HVT or AAN 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
Haverty Furniture Companies	5.64%	14.98%	7.05%
Aaron's	-1.15%	0.02%	0.01%

Does the media favor HVT or AAN?

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 news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
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
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

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, HVT or AAN?

Haverty Furniture Companies has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13M	0.54	$56.32M	$2.75	10.33
Aaron's	$2.10B	0.12	$2.82M	-$0.79	-10.73

Do analysts prefer HVT or AAN?

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

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

Summary

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