Contrasting Flight Centre (OTCMKTS:FGETF) & Manchester United (NYSE:MANU)

Flight Centre (OTCMKTS:FGETF) and Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Flight Centre has a beta of 0.09, suggesting that its share price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Manchester United has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Flight Centre and Manchester United’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flight Centre	N/A	N/A	N/A
Manchester United	-2.67%	0.64%	0.07%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Flight Centre and Manchester United, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flight Centre	0	0	1	1	3.50
Manchester United	1	0	0	0	1.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Flight Centre and Manchester United”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flight Centre	$1.80 billion	1.05	$70.90 million	N/A	N/A
Manchester United	$862.42 million	4.23	-$42.74 million	($0.14)	-151.07

Flight Centre has higher revenue and earnings than Manchester United.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.3% of Manchester United shares are owned by institutional investors. 68.6% of Manchester United shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

About Flight Centre

Flight Centre Travel Group Limited provides travel retailing services for the leisure and corporate sectors in Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. The company offers leisure travel services for the niche sectors, as well as mass, youth, premium, and cruise markets; and corporate travel services for organizations of various sizes across industries, as well as supplies products to its national and international network, or travel retail outlets. It also provides tour operations, hotel management, and destination management services. In addition, the company offers other travel related services, including foreign currency exchange and travel academies; recruitment marketing and bike retailing; and employee benefit services. It provides its services primarily under the Flight Centre brand, as well as other travel brands, such as Student Flights, Travel Associates, Liberty Travel, Infinity Holidays, GOGO Vacations, FCm Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller, Stage and Screen, and cievents. The company was formerly known as Flight Centre Limited and changed its name to Flight Centre Travel Group Limited in November 2013. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in South Brisbane, Australia.

About Manchester United

Manchester United plc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a professional sports team in the United Kingdom. It operates Manchester United Football Club, a professional football club. The company develops marketing and sponsorship relationships with international and regional companies to leverage its brand. It also markets and sells sports apparel, training and leisure wear, and other clothing; and other licensed products, such as coffee mugs and bed spreads featuring the Manchester United brand and trademarks, as well as distributes these products through Manchester United branded retail centers and e-commerce platforms, and through the company’s partners’ wholesale distribution channels. In addition, the company distributes live football content directly, as well as through commercial partners; broadcasts television rights relating to the Premier League, Union of European Football Associations club competitions, and other competitions; and delivers Manchester United programming through MUTV television channel to territories worldwide. Further, it operates Old Trafford, a sports venue with 74,240 seats, as well as invests in properties. The company was formerly known as Manchester United Ltd. changed its name to Manchester United plc in August 2012. Manchester United plc was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in Manchester, the United Kingdom.