Comparing SEB (OTC:SEBYF) and Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT)

Hooker Furnishings (NASDAQ:HOFT) and SEB (OTC:SEBYF) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hooker Furnishings and SEB’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hooker Furnishings	$433.23 million	0.45	-$4.31 million	$0.91	20.22
SEB	N/A	N/A	N/A	C$3.49	34.58

SEB has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Hooker Furnishings. Hooker Furnishings is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEB, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Hooker Furnishings and SEB’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hooker Furnishings	2.28%	4.32%	2.77%
SEB	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Hooker Furnishings pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. SEB pays an annual dividend of C$1.39 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Hooker Furnishings pays out 101.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SEB pays out 39.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hooker Furnishings has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Hooker Furnishings is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Hooker Furnishings and SEB, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hooker Furnishings	0	0	0	0	N/A
SEB	0	0	0	0	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

73.6% of Hooker Furnishings shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.4% of SEB shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Hooker Furnishings shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Hooker Furnishings beats SEB on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hooker Furnishings

Hooker Furnishings Corporation designs, manufactures, imports, and markets residential household, hospitality, and contract furniture. The company's Hooker Branded segment offers design categories, including home entertainment, home office, accent, dining, and bedroom furniture under the Hooker Furniture brand; and imported upholstered furniture under the Hooker Upholstery brand. Its Home Meridian segment provides home furnishings under the Accentrics Home brand; a range of bedroom, dining room, accent, display cabinet, home office, and youth furnishings under the Pulaski Furniture and Samuel Lawrence Furniture brands; and imported leather motion upholstery under the Prime Resources International brand. This segment also designs and supplies hotel furnishings for four and five-star hotels under the Samuel Lawrence Hospitality brand name; and ready-to-assemble furniture under the HMidea brand. The company's Domestic Upholstery segment offers motion and stationary leather furniture under the Bradington-Young brand; occasional chairs, settees, sofas, and sectional seating under the Sam Moore Furniture brand; and upholstered furniture, such as private label sectionals, modulars, sofas, chairs, ottomans, benches, beds, and dining chairs for lifestyle specialty retailers under the Shenandoah Furniture brand. It also supplies upholstered seating and casegoods to upscale senior living and assisted living facilities through designers, design firms, industry dealers, and distributors under the H Contract brand; and interior designer products under the Lifestyle Brands name. The company sells home furnishing products through retailers, such as independent furniture stores, department stores, mass merchants, national chains, catalog merchants, interior designers, e-commerce retailers, and warehouse clubs primarily in North America. Hooker Furnishings Corporation was incorporated in 1924 and is headquartered in Martinsville, Virginia.

About SEB

SEB SA designs, manufactures, and markets small domestic equipment worldwide. It offers kitchen electrics including electrical cooking products, such as deep fryers, rice cookers, electrical pressure cookers, informal meal appliances, waffle makers, grills, toasters, and multicookers; beverage preparation products, which includes filter and pod coffee makers, espresso machines, electrical kettles, and home beer-taps; and food preparation products comprising blenders, soy milk makers, cooking food processors, kitchen machines, mixers, and beaters. The company also provides home and personal care, which includes linen care, such as irons and steam generators, and garment steamers; canister vacuum cleaners with or without dust bag, steam and upright vacuum cleaners and sweepers, and versatile vacuums, and robots; home comfort products, such as fans, heaters, and air purifiers; and personal care products including hair care appliances, depilators, electrical beard trimmers and hair clippers, and bathroom scales. In addition, it offers cookware comprising frying pans, saucepans, woks, pressure cookers, bakeware, kitchen utensils, food storage containers, vacuum flasks, and mugs. The company provides its products under various consumer brands including Aron, Asia Vina, Calor, Clock, EMSA, imusa, Kaiser, Krupus, Maharaj Whiteline, MIRRO, Moulinex, OBH NORDICA, PANEX, Rochedo, Rowenta, Samurai, Seb, SUPOR, Tefal T-fal, umco, and WearEver brands. Further, it offers under premium brands, which includes All-Clad, Krampouz, Lagostina, Silit, and WMF brands; and professional brands, such as HEPP, Schaerer Coffee ProCare, Wilbur Curtis, and Zummo brands. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Écully, France.