Financial Analysis: Guess? (NYSE:GES) vs. Vince (NYSE:VNCE)

Vince (NYSE:VNCE) and Guess? (NYSE:GES) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Vince and Guess?, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vince	0	0	1	1	3.50
Guess?	0	3	0	0	2.00

Vince presently has a consensus price target of $4.50, suggesting a potential upside of 43.31%. Guess? has a consensus price target of $16.75, suggesting a potential downside of 0.56%. Given Vince’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Vince is more favorable than Guess?.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vince and Guess?”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vince	$291.29 million	0.14	-$19.05 million	($1.34)	-2.34
Guess?	$3.00 billion	0.29	$60.42 million	$0.16	105.28

Guess? has higher revenue and earnings than Vince. Vince is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Guess?, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

16.1% of Vince shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.7% of Guess? shares are held by institutional investors. 61.0% of Vince shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 33.7% of Guess? shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vince and Guess?’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vince	-5.75%	11.37%	2.26%
Guess?	1.01%	16.44%	3.05%

Volatility & Risk

Vince has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Guess? has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Guess? beats Vince on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vince

Vince Holding Corp. provides luxury apparel and accessories in the United States and internationally. It operates through Vince Wholesale, Vince Direct-to-Consumer segments. The company offers a range of men's and women's products, such as cashmere sweaters, silk blouses, leather and suede products, and jackets, dresses, skirts, pants, t-shirts, footwear, outerwear, and accessories, as well as woven shirts, core and fashion pants, and blazers under the Vince brand. It sells its products directly to consumers through its branded specialty retail stores and outlet stores, as well as through its vince.com e-commerce platform and subscription business through Vince Unfold, vinceunfold.com; and to department stores and specialty stores. The company was formerly known as Apparel Holding Corp. and changed its name to Vince Holding Corp. in November 2013. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Guess?

Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes, and licenses lifestyle collections of apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. It operates through five segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The company’s clothing collection includes jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, shirts, jackets, activewear, knitwear, and intimate apparel. It also grants licenses to design, manufacture, and distribute various products that complement its apparel lines, such as eyewear, watches, handbags, footwear, kids’ and infants’ apparel, outerwear, fragrance, jewelry, and other fashion accessories, as well as to wholesale partners to operate and sell products through licensed retail stores. The company markets its products under the GUESS, GUESS?, GUESS U.S.A., GUESS Jeans, GUESS? and Triangle Design, MARCIANO, Question Mark and Triangle Design, a stylized G and a stylized M, GUESS Kids, Baby GUESS, YES, G by GUESS, GUESS by MARCIANO, and Gc brand names. It sells its products through direct-to-consumer, wholesale, and licensing distribution channels, as well as through its retail websites. Guess?, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.