Head to Head Survey: Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ:NHTC) and Pigeon (OTCMKTS:PGENY)

Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ:NHTC) and Pigeon (OTCMKTS:PGENY) 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 earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Natural Health Trends and Pigeon, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Natural Health Trends	1	0	0	0	1.00
Pigeon	0	0	0	0	0.00

Profitability

This table compares Natural Health Trends and Pigeon’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Natural Health Trends	-2.22%	-3.23%	-1.97%
Pigeon	7.87%	10.93%	8.42%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.1% of Natural Health Trends shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Natural Health Trends shares are owned by 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.

Dividends

Natural Health Trends pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.0%. Pigeon pays an annual dividend of $0.07 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Natural Health Trends pays out -500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pigeon pays out 63.6% 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. Natural Health Trends is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Natural Health Trends has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pigeon has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Natural Health Trends and Pigeon”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Natural Health Trends	$39.78 million	0.61	-$880,000.00	($0.08)	-35.63
Pigeon	$730.24 million	1.70	$57.43 million	$0.11	23.64

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

Summary

Pigeon beats Natural Health Trends on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Natural Health Trends

Natural Health Trends Corp., a direct-selling and e-commerce company, provides personal care, wellness, and lifestyle products under the NHT Global brand. The company offers wellness products, including liquid, encapsulated, tableted and powder dietary and nutritional supplements, vitamins, and minerals; and herbal products comprising herbal supplements. It also provides beauty products, such as age-defying and hydrating cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, and toners; and lifestyle products, which include weight management and energy enhancing supplements, as well as topical gels. In addition, the company offers home appliances; and daily products, such as oral care, hair care, and body care. It sells its products directly to consumers, as well as through an e-commerce retail platform in the United States, Canada, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Peru, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Europe. The company was formerly known as Florida Institute of Massage Therapy, Inc. and changed its name to Natural Health Trends Corp. in June 1993. Natural Health Trends Corp. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

About Pigeon

Pigeon Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, import, and export of baby and child-care products, maternity items, women’s care products, home healthcare products, and nursing care products in Japan and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Japan Business, China Business, Singapore Business, and Lansinoh Business. The company is involved in the provision of baby and mother care products, such as nursing bottles and nipples, toiletries, breast pads, breast pumps, nipple care products, breast milk storage bags, and breastfeeding-related products under Pigeon and Lansinoh brands. It also offers non-woven products, baby strollers, aging-prevention products, wet wipes, skincare products, cleaning and disinfecting products, and elder care products and services. In addition, the company provides child-minding and daycare services, in-home nursing care support services, outpatient care facility services, operation of in-company childcare facilities, daycare services, event childcare services, babysitter dispatch services, preschool education services, and at-home elder care services. The company was formerly known as Pigeon Honyuki Honpo Corporation and changed its name to Pigeon Corporation in 1966. Pigeon Corporation was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.