Reviewing Home Product Center Public (OTCMKTS:HPCRF) & American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO)

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) and Home Product Center Public (OTCMKTS:HPCRF) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Dividends

American Eagle Outfitters pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Home Product Center Public pays an annual dividend of $0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.3%. American Eagle Outfitters pays out 30.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Home Product Center Public pays out 10.4% 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. American Eagle Outfitters has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Home Product Center Public is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.3% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 3.4% of Home Product Center Public shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of American Eagle Outfitters shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for American Eagle Outfitters and Home Product Center Public, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Eagle Outfitters	1	12	2	0	2.07
Home Product Center Public	0	0	0	0	0.00

American Eagle Outfitters currently has a consensus target price of $20.09, indicating a potential upside of 24.32%. Given American Eagle Outfitters’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe American Eagle Outfitters is more favorable than Home Product Center Public.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares American Eagle Outfitters and Home Product Center Public”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Eagle Outfitters	$5.50 billion	0.49	$191.98 million	$1.62	9.98
Home Product Center Public	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.26	0.73

American Eagle Outfitters has higher revenue and earnings than Home Product Center Public. Home Product Center Public is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Eagle Outfitters, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares American Eagle Outfitters and Home Product Center Public’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Eagle Outfitters	5.01%	20.95%	8.34%
Home Product Center Public	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

American Eagle Outfitters beats Home Product Center Public on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Eagle Outfitters

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories, and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear, and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE by Aerie brands. It also offers menswear products under the Todd Snyder New York brand; and fashion clothing and accessories under the Unsubscribed brand. The company sells its products through own and licensed retail stores; concession-based shops-within-shops; and digital channels, such as www.ae.com, www.aerie.com, www.toddsnyder.com, and www.unsubscribed.com. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About Home Product Center Public

Home Product Center Public Company Limited operates as a home improvement retailer in Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The company trades in various goods and materials for construction, addition, refurbishment, renovation, and improvement of buildings, houses, and residences; and offers related services to retail businesses. It also provides installation, maintenance, warehousing management and distribution, and other services; and utilities services. In addition, the company rents space; and engages in the wholesaling of construction and home improvement products. Home Product Center Public Company Limited was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Nonthaburi, Thailand.