RCI Hospitality (NASDAQ:RICK) and Travel + Leisure (NYSE:TNL) Head-To-Head Survey

RCI Hospitality (NASDAQ:RICK) and Travel + Leisure (NYSE:TNL) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Dividends

RCI Hospitality pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Travel + Leisure pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. RCI Hospitality pays out -41.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Travel + Leisure pays out 67.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. RCI Hospitality has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Travel + Leisure has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Travel + Leisure is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for RCI Hospitality and Travel + Leisure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RCI Hospitality	1	0	0	0	1.00
Travel + Leisure	0	1	10	0	2.91

Travel + Leisure has a consensus price target of $85.40, suggesting a potential upside of 11.35%. Given Travel + Leisure’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Travel + Leisure is more favorable than RCI Hospitality.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares RCI Hospitality and Travel + Leisure”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RCI Hospitality	$279.43 million	0.76	$10.81 million	($0.78)	-35.76
Travel + Leisure	$4.02 billion	1.19	$230.00 million	$3.56	21.54

Travel + Leisure has higher revenue and earnings than RCI Hospitality. RCI Hospitality is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Travel + Leisure, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

53.8% of RCI Hospitality shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Travel + Leisure shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.6% of RCI Hospitality shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of Travel + Leisure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

RCI Hospitality has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Travel + Leisure has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares RCI Hospitality and Travel + Leisure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RCI Hospitality	-2.31%	-2.61%	-1.10%
Travel + Leisure	5.85%	-48.06%	6.48%

Summary

Travel + Leisure beats RCI Hospitality on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About RCI Hospitality

RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the hospitality and related businesses in the United States. It operates in Nightclubs, Bombshells, and Media Group segments. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries own and/or operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals under the Rick's Cabaret, Jaguars Club, Tootsie's Cabaret, XTC Cabaret, Club Onyx, Hoops Cabaret and Sports Bar, Scarlett's Cabaret, Temptations Adult Cabaret, Foxy's Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret, Downtown Cabaret, Cabaret East, The Seville, Silver City Cabaret, and Kappa Men's Club. Wholly-owned subsidiaries also operate restaurants and sports bars under the Bombshells Restaurant & Bar brand; and dance clubs under the Studio 80 brand. As of February 11, 2019, the company operated 46 units, including 39 nightclub units and 7 Bombshell units. In addition, it owns two national industry trade publications serving the adult nightclubs industry and the adult retail products industry; a national industry convention and tradeshow; and two national industry award shows, as well as approximately a dozen industry and social media Websites. The company founded in 1983 as Rick's Cabaret International, Inc., changed its name to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. in August 2014, and is based in Houston, Texas.

About Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure Co., together with its subsidiaries, provides hospitality services and travel products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Vacation Ownership; and Travel and Membership. The Vacation Ownership segment develops, markets, and sells vacation ownership interests (VOIs) to individual consumers, as well as provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs; and property management services at resorts. The Travel and Membership segment operates various travel businesses, including three vacation exchange brands, travel technology platforms, travel memberships, and direct-to-consumer rentals. This segment also offers private-label travel booking technology solutions. The company was formerly known as Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and changed its name to Travel + Leisure Co. in February 2021. Travel + Leisure Co. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.