Head-To-Head Contrast: Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE:LUCK) vs. Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN)

Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) and Lucky Strike Entertainment (NYSE:LUCK) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Dividends

Cedar Fair pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Lucky Strike Entertainment pays an annual dividend of $0.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Cedar Fair pays out -93.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lucky Strike Entertainment pays out -2,200.0% 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. Lucky Strike Entertainment is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cedar Fair and Lucky Strike Entertainment”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cedar Fair	$1.80 billion	2.59	$124.56 million	($0.64)	-72.71
Lucky Strike Entertainment	$1.18 billion	1.30	-$83.58 million	($0.01)	-1,073.00

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

Volatility and Risk

Cedar Fair has a beta of 1.55, meaning that its share price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lucky Strike Entertainment has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.7% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.1% of Lucky Strike Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Cedar Fair shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 79.9% of Lucky Strike Entertainment shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cedar Fair and Lucky Strike Entertainment, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cedar Fair	1	1	11	0	2.77
Lucky Strike Entertainment	0	1	0	0	2.00

Cedar Fair currently has a consensus target price of $56.54, suggesting a potential upside of 21.50%. Lucky Strike Entertainment has a consensus target price of $12.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.84%. Given Cedar Fair’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cedar Fair is more favorable than Lucky Strike Entertainment.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cedar Fair	0.99%	113.05%	2.41%
Lucky Strike Entertainment	1.11%	-35.76%	1.68%

Summary

Cedar Fair beats Lucky Strike Entertainment on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Lucky Strike Entertainment

Lucky Strike Entertainment Corp. engages in operating bowling centers. It offers entertainment concepts with lounge seating, arcades, food and beverage offerings, and hosting and overseeing professional and non-professional bowling tournaments and related broadcasting. The company was founded by Thomas F. Shannon in 1997 and is headquartered in Mechanicsville, VA.