Analyzing LL Flooring (NYSE:LL) & Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT)

Haverty Furniture Companies (NYSE:HVT) and LL Flooring (NYSE:LL) are both small-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Haverty Furniture Companies	$862.13 million	0.54	$56.32 million	$2.75	10.44
LL Flooring	$904.75 million	0.06	-$103.49 million	($3.59)	-0.46

Haverty Furniture Companies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than LL Flooring. LL Flooring is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Haverty Furniture Companies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Haverty Furniture Companies	5.64%	14.94%	7.00%
LL Flooring	-11.44%	-44.10%	-15.43%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.6% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.3% of LL Flooring shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Haverty Furniture Companies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of LL Flooring shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Haverty Furniture Companies has a beta of 1.54, suggesting that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LL Flooring has a beta of 1.85, suggesting that its share price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Haverty Furniture Companies and LL Flooring, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Haverty Furniture Companies	0	0	1	0	3.00
LL Flooring	1	0	0	0	1.00

Haverty Furniture Companies currently has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 56.74%. LL Flooring has a consensus target price of $3.25, indicating a potential upside of 95.78%. Given LL Flooring’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LL Flooring is more favorable than Haverty Furniture Companies.

Summary

Haverty Furniture Companies beats LL Flooring on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Haverty Furniture Companies

Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of residential furniture and accessories in the United States. The company offers furniture merchandise under the Havertys brand name. It also provides custom upholstery products and eclectic looks; and mattress product lines under the Tempur-Pedic, Serta, Sealy, and Stearns and Foster names. The company sells home furnishings through its retail stores, as well as through its website. Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About LL Flooring

LL Flooring Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a multi-channel specialty retailer of hard and soft surface flooring, and hard and soft surface flooring enhancements and accessories. The company offers hard and soft surface flooring including, waterproof hybrid resilient, waterproof vinyl plank, solid and engineered hardwood, laminate, bamboo, tile, and cork products; and flooring enhancements and accessories, including moldings, underlayment, adhesives, and tools, as well as Duravana, a hybrid resilient flooring under the Bellawood, Coreluxe, ReNature by Coreluxe, and Duravana brand names. It also provides in-home delivery and installation services. The company also offers its products through stores, digital platform, and catalogs. The company was formerly known as Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LL Flooring Holdings, Inc. in January 2022. LL Flooring Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.