Belmond (NYSE: BEL) and La Quinta Holdings (NYSE:LQ) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and profitabiliy.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Belmond and La Quinta Holdings, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Belmond | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.40 |
| La Quinta Holdings | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2.13 |
Belmond presently has a consensus target price of $14.50, indicating a potential upside of 10.69%. La Quinta Holdings has a consensus target price of $12.58, indicating a potential downside of 18.02%. Given Belmond’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Belmond is more favorable than La Quinta Holdings.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
75.4% of Belmond shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of La Quinta Holdings shares are owned by institutional investors. 87.6% of Belmond shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of La Quinta Holdings 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.
Volatility & Risk
Belmond has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, La Quinta Holdings has a beta of 1.86, indicating that its stock price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Belmond and La Quinta Holdings’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Belmond | $547.78 million | 2.44 | $102.94 million | $0.20 | 65.50 |
| La Quinta Holdings | $973.13 million | 1.85 | $308.98 million | $0.34 | 45.12 |
La Quinta Holdings has higher revenue and earnings than Belmond. La Quinta Holdings is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Belmond, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Belmond and La Quinta Holdings’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Belmond | 3.61% | 1.74% | 0.77% |
| La Quinta Holdings | 3.91% | 8.04% | 1.81% |
Summary
La Quinta Holdings beats Belmond on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Belmond
Belmond Ltd. (Belmond) is a hotel company and adventure travel operator. As of December 31, 2016, Belmond owned, partially-owned and/or operated 45 properties, consisting of 34 individual deluxe hotels, 29 of which are owned (including nine under long-term lease), five European tourist trains, two cruise ships in Myanmar (one of which is under long-term charter), one French canal cruise business consisting of five small canal boats, and one stand-alone restaurant in the United States. It operates through six segments: owned hotels in Europe, owned hotels in North America (including one stand-alone restaurant), owned hotels in Rest of world, owned trains and cruises, part-owned/managed hotels and part-owned/managed trains. As of December 31, 2016, Belmond’s around the world portfolio of hotels in operation consisted of 3,272 individual guest rooms and multiple-room suites (keys).
About La Quinta Holdings
La Quinta Holdings Inc. is an owner, operator and franchisor of select-service hotels primarily serving the midscale and upper-midscale sectors under the La Quinta brand. The Company’s segments include owned hotels, franchise and management, and corporate and other. The owned hotels segment is engaged in the operation of owned hotel properties. The franchise and management segment is engaged in various license, franchise and management agreements relating to its owned and franchised hotels. As of December 31, 2016, its portfolio consisted of 888 hotels representing approximately 87,200 rooms located primarily across 48 states in the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Honduras and Colombia, of which 322 hotels were owned and operated, and 566 were franchised. As of December 31, 2016, the Company had a pipeline of 248 franchised hotels in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile and El Salvador.
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