Critical Review: Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE:LUCK) & Travel + Leisure (NYSE:TNL)

Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE:LUCK) and Travel + Leisure (NYSE:TNL) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Lucky Strike Entertainment has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Travel + Leisure has a beta of 1.37, suggesting that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lucky Strike Entertainment and Travel + Leisure”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lucky Strike Entertainment	$1.15 billion	1.20	-$83.58 million	($0.07)	-141.29
Travel + Leisure	$3.88 billion	0.86	$411.00 million	$5.99	8.39

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.1% of Lucky Strike Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Travel + Leisure shares are owned by institutional investors. 79.9% of Lucky Strike Entertainment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Travel + Leisure shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Lucky Strike Entertainment and Travel + Leisure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lucky Strike Entertainment	0.21%	-23.31%	1.36%
Travel + Leisure	10.77%	-46.83%	6.14%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Lucky Strike Entertainment and Travel + Leisure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lucky Strike Entertainment	0	2	3	0	2.60
Travel + Leisure	1	2	7	0	2.60

Lucky Strike Entertainment currently has a consensus price target of $11.60, indicating a potential upside of 17.29%. Travel + Leisure has a consensus price target of $59.20, indicating a potential upside of 17.82%. Given Travel + Leisure’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Travel + Leisure is more favorable than Lucky Strike Entertainment.

Dividends

Lucky Strike Entertainment pays an annual dividend of $0.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Travel + Leisure pays an annual dividend of $2.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Lucky Strike Entertainment pays out -314.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Travel + Leisure pays out 37.4% 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. Travel + Leisure has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Travel + Leisure is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Travel + Leisure beats Lucky Strike Entertainment on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lucky Strike Entertainment

Lucky Strike Entertainment Corp. engages in operating bowling centers. It offers entertainment concepts with lounge seating, arcades, food and beverage offerings, and hosting and overseeing professional and non-professional bowling tournaments and related broadcasting. The company was founded by Thomas F. Shannon in 1997 and is headquartered in Mechanicsville, VA.

About Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure Co., together with its subsidiaries, provides hospitality services and travel products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Vacation Ownership; and Travel and Membership. The Vacation Ownership segment develops, markets, and sells vacation ownership interests (VOIs) to individual consumers, as well as provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs; and property management services at resorts. The Travel and Membership segment operates various travel businesses, including three vacation exchange brands, travel technology platforms, travel memberships, and direct-to-consumer rentals. This segment also offers private-label travel booking technology solutions. The company was formerly known as Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and changed its name to Travel + Leisure Co. in February 2021. Travel + Leisure Co. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.