Reviewing ON (NYSE:ONON) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN)

ON (NYSE:ONON) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

ON has a beta of 2.15, meaning that its stock price is 115% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Urban Outfitters has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for ON and Urban Outfitters, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ON	2	3	17	3	2.84
Urban Outfitters	1	8	8	0	2.41

ON presently has a consensus target price of $60.14, indicating a potential upside of 29.30%. Urban Outfitters has a consensus target price of $86.67, indicating a potential upside of 25.69%. Given ON’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe ON is more favorable than Urban Outfitters.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ON and Urban Outfitters”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ON	$2.63 billion	11.09	$275.23 million	$0.77	60.40
Urban Outfitters	$5.55 billion	1.11	$402.46 million	$5.30	13.01

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

Profitability

This table compares ON and Urban Outfitters’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ON	7.45%	14.81%	8.48%
Urban Outfitters	8.15%	18.33%	10.04%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

36.4% of ON shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.6% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by institutional investors. 31.8% of Urban Outfitters shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Urban Outfitters beats ON on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ON

On Holding AG engages in the development and distribution of sports products such as footwear, apparel, and accessories for high-performance running, outdoor, all-day activities, and tennis. It sells its products worldwide through independent retailers and global distributors, its own online presence, and its own stores. The company was founded by David Allemann, Olivier Bernhard, and Caspar Coppetti in January 2010 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

About Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters, Inc. engages in the retail and wholesale of general consumer products. The company operates through three segments: Retail, Wholesale, and Nuuly. It operates Urban Outfitters stores, which offer women's and men's fashion apparel, activewear, intimates, footwear, accessories, home goods, electronics, and beauty products for young adults aged 18 to 28; and Anthropologie stores that provide women's apparel, accessories, intimates, shoes, and home furnishings, as well as gifts, decorative items, and beauty and wellness products for women aged 28 to 45. The company also operates Terrain stores that provide lifestyle home products, garden and outdoor living products, antiques, live plants, flowers, wellness products, and accessories. In addition, it operates Free People retail stores, which offer casual women's apparel, intimates, activewear, shoes, accessories, home products, gifts, and beauty and wellness products for young women aged 25 to 30; and restaurants, as well as women's apparel subscription rental service under the Nuuly brand. Further, the company is involved in the wholesale of young women's contemporary casual apparel, intimates, activewear, and shoes under the Free People brand; and apparel collections under the Urban Outfitters brand. The company serves its customers directly through retail stores, websites, mobile applications, catalogs and customer contact centers, franchisee-owned stores, and department and specialty stores, as well as social media and third-party digital platforms. Urban Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.