Haverty Furniture Companies (HVT) Competitors

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

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in AAN or HVT?

Aaron's received 144 more outperform votes than Haverty Furniture Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.43% 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 536 70.43%	Underperform Votes 225 29.57%
Haverty Furniture Companies	Outperform Votes 392 64.47%	Underperform Votes 216 35.53%

Does the media favor AAN or HVT?

In the previous week, Haverty Furniture Companies had 3 more articles in the media than Aaron's. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Haverty Furniture Companies and 0 mentions for Aaron's. Aaron's' average media sentiment score of 0.16 beat Haverty Furniture Companies' score of 0.00 indicating that Haverty Furniture Companies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Aaron's	Neutral
Haverty Furniture Companies	Neutral

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. 5.9% of Aaron's shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.4% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer AAN or HVT?

Aaron's currently has a consensus price target of $11.50, suggesting a potential upside of 62.09%. Haverty Furniture Companies has a consensus price target of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 63.28%. Given Aaron's' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly 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

Is AAN or HVT more profitable?

Haverty Furniture Companies has a net margin of 5.64% compared to Haverty Furniture Companies' net margin of -1.15%. Aaron's' return on equity of 14.98% beat Haverty Furniture Companies' 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 more volatility and risk, AAN or HVT?

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

Which has higher earnings and valuation, 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	$2.14B	0.10	$2.82M	-$0.79	-8.98
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13M	0.52	$56.32M	$2.75	10.02

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 7.0%. Haverty Furniture Companies pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. 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 has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Haverty Furniture Companies has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Aaron's is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies beats Aaron's on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.