Analyzing Smith & Wesson Brands (NASDAQ:SWBI) & Amer Sports (NYSE:AS)

Smith & Wesson Brands (NASDAQ:SWBI) and Amer Sports (NYSE:AS) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

59.3% of Smith & Wesson Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.3% of Amer Sports shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Smith & Wesson Brands shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Smith & Wesson Brands and Amer Sports, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smith & Wesson Brands	0	1	1	0	2.50
Amer Sports	0	4	11	1	2.81

Smith & Wesson Brands currently has a consensus price target of $12.00, indicating a potential upside of 47.97%. Amer Sports has a consensus price target of $38.7357, indicating a potential upside of 0.04%. Given Smith & Wesson Brands’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Smith & Wesson Brands is more favorable than Amer Sports.

Profitability

This table compares Smith & Wesson Brands and Amer Sports’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smith & Wesson Brands	2.60%	3.71%	2.39%
Amer Sports	3.70%	7.21%	3.90%

Risk & Volatility

Smith & Wesson Brands has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amer Sports has a beta of 3.31, suggesting that its share price is 231% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Smith & Wesson Brands and Amer Sports”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smith & Wesson Brands	$474.66 million	0.75	$13.43 million	$0.27	30.04
Amer Sports	$5.18 billion	4.14	$72.60 million	$0.37	104.65

Amer Sports has higher revenue and earnings than Smith & Wesson Brands. Smith & Wesson Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amer Sports, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Amer Sports beats Smith & Wesson Brands on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Smith & Wesson Brands

Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the manufacture, design, and provision of firearms. Its portfolio includes handguns, long guns, handcuffs, suppressor, and other firearm-related products. The firm’s brands are Smith & Wesson, M&P, Thompson/Center Arms, and Gemtech. The company was founded by Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson in 1852 and is headquartered in Maryville, TN.

About Amer Sports

Amer Sports, Inc. designs, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells sports equipment, apparel, footwear, and accessories in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, China, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technical Apparel, Outdoor Performance, and Ball & Racquet Sports. The Technical Apparel segment offers outdoor apparel, footwear, and accessories which includes climbing gear. The Outdoor Performance segment provides hiking and running footwear, functional apparel, skiing and snowboarding gear, and lifestyle footwear. The Ball & Racquet Sports segment offers sports equipment for tennis, baseball, american football, basketball, golf, and various other professional and recreational sports. This segment provides custom-fitting protective gear and apparel for baseball, softball, football, and lacrosse. It sells its products under the Arc'teryx, PeakPerformance, Salomon, Atomic, Armada, ENVE, Wilson, Louisville Slugger, DeMarini, EvoShield, and ATEC brands. The company distributes its products through retail stores, general sporting goods retailers, specialty stores, independently operated partner stores, and distributors, as well as its e-commerce websites, and retailer-owned and third-party e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Amer Sports Management Holding (Cayman) Limited and changed its name to Amer Sports, Inc. in August 2023. Amer Sports, Inc. was founded in 1950 and is based in Helsinki, Finland.