Baozun (NASDAQ:BZUN) & Grove Collaborative (NYSE:GROV) Critical Review

Grove Collaborative (NYSE:GROV) and Baozun (NASDAQ:BZUN) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

Grove Collaborative has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Baozun has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.6% of Grove Collaborative shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.3% of Baozun shares are held by institutional investors. 13.1% of Grove Collaborative shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 59.2% of Baozun shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Grove Collaborative and Baozun’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grove Collaborative	-11.35%	-417.96%	-14.19%
Baozun	-2.55%	-5.58%	-2.33%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Grove Collaborative and Baozun, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grove Collaborative	0	0	1	0	3.00
Baozun	0	2	1	0	2.33

Grove Collaborative currently has a consensus target price of $2.00, indicating a potential upside of 14.29%. Baozun has a consensus target price of $3.20, indicating a potential upside of 9.22%. Given Grove Collaborative’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Grove Collaborative is more favorable than Baozun.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Grove Collaborative and Baozun”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grove Collaborative	$213.78 million	0.32	-$43.23 million	($0.69)	-2.54
Baozun	$8.97 billion	0.02	-$39.22 million	($0.54)	-5.43

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

Summary

Baozun beats Grove Collaborative on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grove Collaborative

Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. operates as a plastic neutral consumer products retailer in the United States. It offers household, personal care, beauty, and other consumer products through retail channels, third parties, direct-to-consumer platform, and mobile applications, as well as online store. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Baozun

Baozun Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides end-to-end e-commerce solutions to brand partners in the People’s Republic of China. The company operates through two segments, E-Commerce and Brand Management (BBM). The E-Commerce segment offers brands’ store operations, customer services and value-added services in logistics and supply chain management, IT, and digital marketing. The Brand Management segment provides brand management, strategic and tactic positioning, branding and marketing, retail and e-commerce operations, supply chain, and logistics and technology services. It serves brand partners in various categories, including apparel and accessories, appliances, electronics, home and furnishings, food and health products, beauty and cosmetics, fast moving consumer goods, mother and baby products, and automobiles. The company was formerly known as Baozun Cayman Inc. and changed its name to Baozun Inc. in March 2015. Baozun Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China.