Contrasting Japan Tobacco (OTCMKTS:JAPAF) & Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR)

Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) and Japan Tobacco (OTCMKTS:JAPAF) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Laureate Education and Japan Tobacco, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Laureate Education	1	2	3	1	2.57
Japan Tobacco	0	0	1	0	3.00

Laureate Education presently has a consensus target price of $40.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.55%. Given Laureate Education’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Laureate Education is more favorable than Japan Tobacco.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.3% of Laureate Education shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.7% of Japan Tobacco shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Laureate Education shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Laureate Education and Japan Tobacco’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Laureate Education	17.57%	23.54%	11.72%
Japan Tobacco	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Laureate Education and Japan Tobacco”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Laureate Education	$1.70 billion	3.02	$281.63 million	$2.23	16.73
Japan Tobacco	N/A	N/A	N/A	$225.55	0.19

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

Summary

Laureate Education beats Japan Tobacco on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Laureate Education

Laureate Education, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, offers higher education programs and services to students through a network of universities and higher education institutions. The company provides a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the areas of business and management, medicine and health sciences, and engineering and information technology through campus-based, online, and hybrid programs. It also offers specialized courses for technical and vocational training; and senior high school. Its services are provides in Mexico, Peru, and the United States. The company was formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Laureate Education, Inc. in May 2004. Laureate Education, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.

About Japan Tobacco

Japan Tobacco Inc., a tobacco company, manufactures and sells tobacco products, pharmaceuticals, and processed foods in Japan and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Tobacco Business, Pharmaceutical Business, and Processed Food Business. It offers tobacco products, such as cigarettes, heat-not-burn tobacco products, E-vapor products, fine cut tobacco products, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco products, and hookah and kretek products. The company provides reduced-risk products, including infused tobacco capsules and heated tobacco sticks. In addition, it researches and develops, manufactures, and sells prescription drugs for the therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, kidney and metabolism, immunity/inflammation, and central nervous system. Further, the company provides frozen and room-temperature products, such as frozen udon noodles, packed rice, and frozen okonomiyaki; bakery products; and seasonings, including yeast extracts, assembled, kelp and bonito extracts, and oyster sauces. It offers its products under the Winston, Camel, MEVIUS, and LD brands. Japan Tobacco Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.