National Vision (NASDAQ:EYE) vs. ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) Critical Comparison

ARKO (NASDAQ:ARKO) and National Vision (NASDAQ:EYE) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.3% of ARKO shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.5% of ARKO shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of National Vision shares are owned 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for ARKO and National Vision, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ARKO	1	3	1	1	2.33
National Vision	1	4	6	0	2.45

ARKO currently has a consensus price target of $7.13, indicating a potential upside of 45.71%. National Vision has a consensus price target of $27.00, indicating a potential downside of 7.79%. Given ARKO’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe ARKO is more favorable than National Vision.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares ARKO and National Vision”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ARKO	$8.73 billion	0.06	$20.84 million	$0.11	44.45
National Vision	$1.82 billion	1.27	-$28.50 million	($0.03)	-976.00

ARKO has higher revenue and earnings than National Vision. National Vision is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ARKO, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares ARKO and National Vision’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ARKO	0.24%	6.95%	0.52%
National Vision	-0.12%	3.58%	1.52%

Risk & Volatility

ARKO has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Vision has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ARKO beats National Vision on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ARKO

Arko Corp. operates convenience stores in the United States. It operates through Retail, Wholesale, Fleet Fueling, and GPMP segments. The Retail segment engages in the sale of fuel and merchandise to retail consumers. Its Wholesale segment supplies fuel to third-party dealers and consignment agents. The Fleet Fueling segment supplies fuel to proprietary and third-party cardlock, and issuance of proprietary fuel cards. Its GPMP segment supplies fuel to retail and wholesale segments. The company is based in Richmond, Virginia.

About National Vision

National Vision Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an optical retailer in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Owned & Host and Legacy. It offers eyeglasses and contact lenses, and optical accessory products; provides eye exams through its America’s Best, Eyeglass World, Vista Optical, Fred Meyer, and Vista Optical military, as well as Vision Center branded stores; and offers health maintenance organization and optometric services. National Vision Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.