Contrasting HNI (HNI) & Its Competitors

HNI (NYSE:HNI) is one of 355 public companies in the “Commercial Services & Supplies” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare HNI to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and risk.

Dividends

HNI pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. HNI pays out 1,555.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.5% and pay out 64.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. HNI has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares HNI and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HNI	0.10%	13.66%	5.23%
HNI Competitors	-61.15%	-127.71%	-1.45%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares HNI and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
HNI	$4.39 billion	$54.20 million	547.46
HNI Competitors	$2.42 billion	$139.29 million	21.34

HNI has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its competitors. HNI is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

HNI has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HNI’s competitors have a beta of 2.45, suggesting that their average share price is 145% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for HNI and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HNI	0	1	1	0	2.50
HNI Competitors	1832	6110	9001	656	2.48

HNI currently has a consensus target price of $65.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.92%. As a group, “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies have a potential upside of 10.82%. Given HNI’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe HNI is more favorable than its competitors.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.3% of HNI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.6% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of HNI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.7% of shares of all “Commercial Services & Supplies” companies 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.

Summary

HNI beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

HNI Company Profile

HNI Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture, sale, and marketing of workplace furnishings and residential building products primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Workplace Furnishings and Residential Building Products. The Workplace Furnishings segment offers a range of commercial and home office furniture, including panel-based and freestanding furniture systems, seating, storage, benching, tables, architectural products, and ancillary and hospitality products, as well as social collaborative items under the HON, Allsteel, Beyond, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, HNI India, Kimball, National, Etc., Interwoven, David Edward, Kimball Hospitality, and D'style brands. This segment sells its products through independent office products dealers, wholesalers, office product distributors, e-commerce focused resellers, and wholesalers, as well as directly to end-user customers and governments. The Residential Building Products segment provides various gas, wood, electric, and pellet-fueled prefabricated fireplaces; and inserts, hearth stoves, facings, outdoor fire pits and fire tables, and accessories. This segment sells its products primarily for home use under the Heatilator, Heat & Glo, Majestic, Monessen, Quadra-Fire, Harman, Vermont Castings, PelPro, Stellar, SimpliFire, The Outdoor GreatRoom Company, and Forge & Flame brand names through independent dealers and distributors, and corporation-owned distribution and retail outlets. The company was incorporated in 1944 and is headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa.