Wolverine World Wide (NYSE:WWW – Get Free Report) and Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL – Get Free Report) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Wolverine World Wide and Gildan Activewear, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Wolverine World Wide | 0 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 2.45 |
| Gildan Activewear | 0 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 2.81 |
Wolverine World Wide currently has a consensus target price of $23.11, indicating a potential upside of 20.98%. Gildan Activewear has a consensus target price of $76.50, indicating a potential upside of 86.61%. Given Gildan Activewear’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Gildan Activewear is more favorable than Wolverine World Wide.
Valuation and Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Wolverine World Wide | $1.87 billion | 0.84 | $95.80 million | $1.29 | 14.81 |
| Gildan Activewear | $3.62 billion | 2.10 | $398.88 million | $0.52 | 78.83 |
Gildan Activewear has higher revenue and earnings than Wolverine World Wide. Wolverine World Wide is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Gildan Activewear, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Wolverine World Wide and Gildan Activewear’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Wolverine World Wide | 5.55% | 28.50% | 7.23% |
| Gildan Activewear | 1.28% | 21.03% | 7.07% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
90.2% of Wolverine World Wide shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.8% of Gildan Activewear shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Wolverine World Wide shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Gildan Activewear shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Dividends
Wolverine World Wide pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Gildan Activewear pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Wolverine World Wide pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Gildan Activewear pays out 192.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gildan Activewear has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Gildan Activewear is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Volatility & Risk
Wolverine World Wide has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gildan Activewear has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Gildan Activewear beats Wolverine World Wide on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Wolverine World Wide
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. designs, manufactures, sources, markets, licenses, and distributes footwear, apparel, and accessories in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America. It operates through Active Group and Work Group segments. The company offers casual footwear and apparel; performance outdoor and athletic footwear and apparel; kids' footwear; industrial work boots and apparel; and uniform shoes and boots. The company sources and markets a range of footwear and apparel styles, including shoes, boots and sandals under the Bates, Cat, Chaco, Harley-Davidson, Hush Puppies, Hytest, Merrell, Saucony, Sperry, Keds, Sweaty Betty, and Wolverine brands; and licenses under the Stride Rite brand. It also markets Merrell and Wolverine branded apparel and accessories, as well as licenses its brands for use on non-footwear products, including the Hush Puppies apparel, eyewear, watches, socks, handbags, and plush toys; and Wolverine branded eyewear and gloves. In addition, the company markets pigskin leather under the Wolverine Leather division; sourcing division provides consulting services related to product development, production control, quality assurance, materials procurement, compliance, and other service; and multi-brand direct-to-consumer division includes retail stores that sell footwear and apparel of its brand portfolio. Further, it sells its products to department stores, national chains, catalog and specialty retailers, independent retailers, uniform outlets, and mass merchant and government customers through retail stores, third-party licensees and distributors, and joint ventures; and operates brick and mortar retails stores, and e-commerce sites. Additionally, the company operates through a network of retail stores and e-commerce sites. Wolverine World Wide, Inc. was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Rockford, Michigan.
About Gildan Activewear
Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sports shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Glidan Softstyle, Gildan Heavy Cotton, Gildan Ultra Cotton, Gildan DryBlend, Gildan HeavyBlend, Comfort Colors, and American Apparel brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks under the Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, All Pro, and GoldTeo Edition TM brands. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, and embellishers, as well as to retailers and lifestyle brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
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