Caesarstone (CSTE) vs. American Woodmark Corporation (AMWD) Financial Contrast

American Woodmark Corporation (NASDAQ: AMWD) and Caesarstone (NASDAQ:CSTE) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitabiliy.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

81.2% of American Woodmark Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.5% of Caesarstone shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of American Woodmark Corporation shares are held by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares American Woodmark Corporation and Caesarstone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Woodmark Corporation	6.91%	22.19%	14.56%
Caesarstone	8.26%	10.01%	7.62%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for American Woodmark Corporation and Caesarstone, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Woodmark Corporation	0	1	1	0	2.50
Caesarstone	0	3	1	0	2.25

American Woodmark Corporation presently has a consensus price target of $88.00, suggesting a potential downside of 9.18%. Caesarstone has a consensus price target of $42.33, suggesting a potential upside of 37.67%. Given Caesarstone’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Caesarstone is more favorable than American Woodmark Corporation.

Volatility & Risk

American Woodmark Corporation has a beta of 1.41, indicating that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Caesarstone has a beta of 2.08, indicating that its share price is 108% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares American Woodmark Corporation and Caesarstone’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Woodmark Corporation	$1.03 billion	1.53	$123.52 million	$4.34	22.33
Caesarstone	$564.61 million	1.87	$117.19 million	$1.82	16.90

American Woodmark Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than Caesarstone. Caesarstone is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Woodmark Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

American Woodmark Corporation beats Caesarstone on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Woodmark Corporation

American Woodmark Corporation manufactures and distributes kitchen cabinets and vanities for the remodeling and new home construction markets. The Company offers framed stock cabinets in approximately 500 different cabinet lines, ranging in price from relatively inexpensive to medium-priced styles. Styles vary by design and color from natural wood finishes to low-pressure laminate surfaces. The product offering of stock cabinets includes approximately 90 door designs in over 20 colors. Stock cabinets consist of cabinet interiors of varying dimensions and construction options, and a maple, oak, cherry, or hickory front frame, door and/or drawer front. The Company’s products are sold under the brand names of American Woodmark, Simply Woodmark, Timberlake, Shenandoah Cabinetry, Shenandoah Value Series and Waypoint Living Spaces. The Company’s primary raw materials used include hard maple, soft maple, oak, cherry, and hickory lumber and plywood.

About Caesarstone

Caesarstone Ltd., formerly Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd., is a manufacturer of engineered quartz surfaces. The Company’s products consist of engineered quartz, which are installed as countertops in residential kitchens. Its products are primarily used as kitchen countertops in the renovation, remodeling and residential construction end markets. The other applications of its products include vanity tops, wall panels, back splashes, floor tiles, stairs, and other interior surfaces that are used in a range of residential and non-residential applications. Its product offerings include over four collections, such as Classico, Concetto, Motivo and Supernatural, which are marketed as specialty product collections. It sells its products under the Caesarstone brand. Its designs range from fine-grained patterns to coarse-grained color blends with a variegated visual texture. It offers over 70 different colors, with four textures and three thicknesses available for each of the collection’s colors.