lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) versus Oxford Industries (NYSE:OXM) Critical Analysis

lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) and Oxford Industries (NYSE:OXM) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for lululemon athletica and Oxford Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
lululemon athletica	1	30	2	2	2.14
Oxford Industries	2	5	0	0	1.71

lululemon athletica currently has a consensus price target of $227.05, suggesting a potential upside of 21.22%. Oxford Industries has a consensus price target of $45.40, suggesting a potential upside of 10.02%. Given lululemon athletica’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe lululemon athletica is more favorable than Oxford Industries.

Profitability

This table compares lululemon athletica and Oxford Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
lululemon athletica	15.72%	39.78%	22.82%
Oxford Industries	-0.20%	9.35%	4.18%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.2% of lululemon athletica shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.2% of Oxford Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of lululemon athletica shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of Oxford Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares lululemon athletica and Oxford Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
lululemon athletica	$11.07 billion	1.98	$1.81 billion	$14.43	12.98
Oxford Industries	$1.52 billion	0.40	$92.97 million	($0.33)	-125.05

lululemon athletica has higher revenue and earnings than Oxford Industries. Oxford Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than lululemon athletica, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

lululemon athletica has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oxford Industries has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

lululemon athletica beats Oxford Industries on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About lululemon athletica

Lululemon Athletica Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, distributes, and retails athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories under the lululemon brand for women and men. It offers pants, shorts, tops, and jackets for healthy lifestyle, such as yoga, running, training, and other activities. It also provides fitness-inspired accessories. The company sells its products through a chain of company-operated stores; outlets; interactive workout platform; yoga and fitness studios, university campus retailers, and other partners; license and supply arrangements; and temporary locations, as well as through mobile apps and lululemon.com e-commerce website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, Mainland China, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Thailand, the Asia Pacific, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Lululemon Athletica Inc. was founded in 1998 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

About Oxford Industries

Oxford Industries, Inc., an apparel company, designs, sources, markets, and distributes products of lifestyle and other brands worldwide. The company offers men's and women's sportswear and related products under the Tommy Bahama brand; and women's and girl's dresses and sportswear, scarves, bags, jewelry, and belts, as well as children's apparel, swim, footwear, and licensed products under the Lilly Pulitzer brand. In addition, the company licenses Tommy Bahama brand for various products, such as indoor and outdoor furniture, beach chairs, bedding and bath linens, fabrics, leather goods and gifts, headwear, hosiery, sleepwear, shampoo, toiletries, fragrances, cigar accessories, distilled spirits, and other products; and Lilly Pulitzer for stationery and gift products, home furnishing products, and eyewear. The company distribute its products through southerntide.com, thebeaufortbonnetcompany.com, and duckhead.com; and specialty retailers. It offers products through its retail stores, department stores, specialty stores, multi-branded e-commerce retailers, off-price retailers, and other retailers, as well as e-commerce sites. The company operates brand-specific full-price retail stores; Tommy Bahama food and beverage locations; and Tommy Bahama outlet stores. Oxford Industries, Inc. was founded in 1942 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.