Analyzing Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) & Accel Entertainment (NYSE:ACEL)

Accel Entertainment (NYSE:ACEL) and Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Accel Entertainment and Cedar Fair, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Accel Entertainment	0	0	1	0	3.00
Cedar Fair	1	1	9	0	2.73

Accel Entertainment presently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 39.25%. Cedar Fair has a consensus target price of $58.82, indicating a potential upside of 33.40%. Given Accel Entertainment’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Accel Entertainment is more favorable than Cedar Fair.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Accel Entertainment and Cedar Fair’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Accel Entertainment	$1.17 billion	0.81	$45.60 million	$0.51	22.53
Cedar Fair	$1.82 billion	1.24	$124.56 million	$2.43	18.14

Cedar Fair has higher revenue and earnings than Accel Entertainment. Cedar Fair is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Accel Entertainment, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Accel Entertainment has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cedar Fair has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.4% of Accel Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.7% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.2% of Accel Entertainment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Accel Entertainment and Cedar Fair’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Accel Entertainment	4.05%	36.19%	8.01%
Cedar Fair	6.80%	-23.97%	6.70%

Summary

Cedar Fair beats Accel Entertainment on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Accel Entertainment

Accel Entertainment, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a distributed gaming operator in the United States. It is involved in the installation, maintenance, and operation of gaming terminals; redemption devices that disburse winnings and contain automated teller machine (ATM) functionality; and other amusement devices in authorized non-casino locations, such as restaurants, bars, taverns, convenience stores, liquor stores, truck stops, and grocery stores. The company also provides gaming solutions to the location partners. In addition, it operates stand-alone ATMs in gaming and non-gaming locations, as well as amusement devices, including jukeboxes, dartboards, pool tables, and other related entertainment equipment. The company is headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois.

About Cedar Fair

Cedar Fair, L.P. owns and operates amusement and water parks, as well as complementary resort facilities. Its amusement parks include Cedar Point located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo in Sandusky, Ohio; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles, California; Canada's Wonderland near Toronto, Ontario; Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio; Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina; Kings Dominion situated near Richmond, Virginia; California's Great America located in Santa Clara, California; Dorney Park in Pennsylvania; Worlds of Fun located in Kansas City, Missouri; Valleyfair situated near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Michigan's Adventure situated near Muskegon, Michigan; Schlitterbahn Waterpark & Resort New Braunfels in New Braunfels, Texas; and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston in Galveston, Texas. The company also owns and operates the Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort, Hotel Breakers, Cedar Point's Express Hotel, and Sawmill Creek Resort. Cedar Fair, L.P. was founded in 1983 and is based in Sandusky, Ohio.