Reviewing Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) and Honest (NASDAQ:HNST)

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) and Honest (NASDAQ:HNST) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Honest”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifetime Brands	$682.95 million	0.13	-$15.16 million	($1.59)	-2.48
Honest	$378.34 million	1.16	-$6.12 million	$0.05	79.20

Honest has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Lifetime Brands. Lifetime Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Honest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Honest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifetime Brands	-5.16%	0.12%	0.04%
Honest	1.66%	3.84%	2.67%

Risk and Volatility

Lifetime Brands has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Honest has a beta of 2.33, meaning that its stock price is 133% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

40.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.5% of Honest shares are held by institutional investors. 43.2% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Honest shares are held 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Lifetime Brands and Honest, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifetime Brands	1	1	1	0	2.00
Honest	0	3	3	0	2.50

Lifetime Brands presently has a consensus target price of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 39.24%. Honest has a consensus target price of $6.96, indicating a potential upside of 75.72%. Given Honest’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Honest is more favorable than Lifetime Brands.

Summary

Honest beats Lifetime Brands on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc. designs, sources, and sells branded kitchenware, tableware, and other products for use in the home in the worldwide. The company provides kitchenware products, including kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery, kitchen scales, thermometers, cutting boards, shears, cookware, pantryware, spice racks, and bakeware; and tableware products comprising dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and giftware. It also provides home solutions, such as thermal beverageware, bath scales, weather and outdoor household, food storage, neoprene travel, and home décor products. The company owns or licenses various brands, including the Farberware, Mikasa, Taylor, KitchenAid, Pfaltzgraff, BUILT NY, Rabbit, Kamenstein, S’well, and Fred & Friends. It serves mass market merchants, specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, grocery stores, off-price retailers, food service distributors, food and beverage outlets, and e-commerce. The company sells its products directly, as well as through its retail websites. Lifetime Brands, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Garden City, New York.

About Honest

The Honest Company, Inc. manufactures and sells diapers and wipes, skin and personal care, and household and wellness products. The company also offers baby clothing and nursery bedding products. It sells its products through digital and retail sales channels, such as its website and third-party ecommerce sites, as well as brick and mortar retailers. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.