Head-To-Head Review: Brunswick (NYSE:BC) vs. Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA)

Escalade (NASDAQ:ESCA) and Brunswick (NYSE:BC) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Escalade and Brunswick, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Escalade	0	1	0	1	3.00
Brunswick	1	8	6	0	2.33

Brunswick has a consensus target price of $78.92, indicating a potential downside of 8.85%. Given Brunswick’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brunswick is more favorable than Escalade.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

65.2% of Escalade shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.3% of Brunswick shares are held by institutional investors. 28.8% of Escalade shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Brunswick shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Escalade has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brunswick has a beta of 1.36, indicating that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Escalade pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Brunswick pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Escalade pays out 65.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brunswick pays out -47.3% 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. Brunswick has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Escalade and Brunswick”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Escalade	$251.51 million	0.78	$12.99 million	$0.91	15.54
Brunswick	$5.24 billion	1.08	$130.10 million	($3.64)	-23.79

Brunswick has higher revenue and earnings than Escalade. Brunswick is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Escalade, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Escalade and Brunswick’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Escalade	5.26%	7.49%	5.65%
Brunswick	-4.60%	10.55%	3.39%

Summary

Brunswick beats Escalade on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Escalade

Escalade, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, imports, and sells sporting goods in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company provides various sporting goods brands in basketball goals, archery, indoor and outdoor game recreation, and fitness products. It offers archery products under the Bear Archery, Trophy Ridge, Whisker Biscuit, Cajun Bowfishing, Karnage, SIK, BearX, and Bear Traditional brand names; table tennis products under the STIGA and Ping-Pong brands; basketball goals under the Goalrilla, Goaliath, Silverback, Hoopstar, and Goalsetter brand names; and pickleball under the Onix, DURA, and Pickleball Now brands. The company also provides play systems under the Woodplay, Jack & June, and Childlife brands; fitness products under the STEP, Lifeline, Kettleworx, Natural Fitness, USW, and PER4M brand names; safety products under the USWeight brand; hockey and soccer game tables under the Triumph Sports, Atomic, American Legend, Air Hockey, and HJ Scott brands; and billiard tables and accessories under the American Heritage Billiards, Brunswick Billiards, Gold Crown, Centennial, Cue&Case, Lucasi, Mizerak, PureX, Rage, Players, Minnesota Fats, and Mosconi brand names. In addition, it offers darting products under the Unicorn, Winmau, DMI, Prodigy, Arachnid, Accudart, and Nodor brands; water sports products under the RAVE Sports brand; and outdoor game products under the Victory Tailgate, Triumph Sports, ACL, and Zume Games brand names. The company provides its products through sporting goods retailers, specialty dealers, online retailers, direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, traditional department stores, and mass merchants. Escalade, Incorporated was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana.

About Brunswick

Brunswick Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets recreation products in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Propulsion, Engine P&A, Navico Group, and Boat. The Propulsion segment provides outboard, sterndrive, inboard engines, propulsion-related controls, rigging, and propellers for boat builders through marine retail dealers under the Mercury, Mercury MerCruiser, Mariner, Mercury Racing, Mercury Diesel, Avator, and Fliteboard brands. The Engine P&A segment offers engine parts and consumables, electrical products, boat parts and systems, and engine oils and lubricants through aftermarket retailers, dealers, distributors, and original equipment manufacturers for marine and non-marine markets under the Mercury, Mercury Precision Parts, Quicksilver, and Seachoice brands; and distributes marine parts and accessories. The Navico Group segment provides products and systems for the marine, recreational vehicle (RV), specialty vehicle, mobile, and industrial markets, as well as aftermarket channels; and marine electronics, sensors, control systems, instruments, power systems, and general accessories under the Ancor, Attwood, B&G, BEP, Blue Sea Systems, C-MAP, CZone, Lenco, Lowrance, Marinco, Mastervolt, MotorGuide, Progressive Industries, ProMariner, RELiON, Simrad, and Whale brand names. The Boat segment offers Sea Ray sport boats and cruisers; Bayliner sport cruisers, runabouts, and Heyday wake boats; Boston Whaler fiberglass offshore boats; Lund fiberglass fishing boats; Crestliner, Harris, Lowe, Lund, Princecraft aluminum fishing, utility, pontoon, and deck boats; Thunder Jet heavy-gauge aluminum boats; Veer recreational and fishing boats; and the freedom boat club, dealer services, and technology to the marine industry through dealers and distributors. Brunswick Corporation was founded in 1845 and is headquartered in Mettawa, Illinois.