Critical Contrast: Yatsen (NYSE:YSG) versus Scott’s Liquid Gold (OTCMKTS:SLGD)

Scott’s Liquid Gold (OTCMKTS:SLGD) and Yatsen (NYSE:YSG) are both consumer defensive companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Scott’s Liquid Gold and Yatsen, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scott’s Liquid Gold	0	0	0	0	N/A
Yatsen	0	1	0	0	2.00

Yatsen has a consensus target price of $3.80, suggesting a potential upside of 13.43%. Given Yatsen’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Yatsen is more favorable than Scott’s Liquid Gold.

Profitability

This table compares Scott’s Liquid Gold and Yatsen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scott’s Liquid Gold	N/A	N/A	N/A
Yatsen	-26.62%	-12.48%	-10.21%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

4.9% of Scott’s Liquid Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Scott’s Liquid Gold shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.0% of Yatsen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Scott’s Liquid Gold and Yatsen”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scott’s Liquid Gold	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.13	171.96
Yatsen	$480.96 million	0.71	-$104.90 million	($1.21)	-2.79

Scott’s Liquid Gold has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Yatsen. Yatsen is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Scott’s Liquid Gold, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Scott’s Liquid Gold beats Yatsen on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Scott’s Liquid Gold

Scott's Liquid Gold-Inc. develops, markets, and sells household, and health and beauty care products in the United States. It operates in two segments, Household Products, and Health and Beauty Care Products. The Household Products segment offers wood care and floor restore products under the Scott's Liquid Gold name; stain and odor removing products under the Kids N Pets and Messy Pet brand name for children and pets; and laundry care products under the Biz brand name. The Health and Beauty Care Products segment provides skin care products under the Alpha brand; and hair care products under the Prell and Denorex brands. It sells its products through sales force and independent distributors to mass merchandisers, drugstores, supermarkets, hardware stores, e-commerce retailers, and other retail outlets, as well as to wholesale distributors. Scott's Liquid Gold-Inc. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

About Yatsen

Yatsen Holding Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and sale of beauty products under the Perfect Diary, Little Ondine, Pink Bear, Abby’s Choice, GalÃnic, DR.WU, Eve Lom, and EANTiM brands in the People’s Republic of China. The company offers color cosmetics for lips, eyes, and face; skin care products, including face serums and creams, eye creams, masks, toners, makeup removers, cleansers, ampoules, and anti-acne patches; and beauty tools and kits, sunscreen products, and beauty devices. It sells its products through stores and online channel. The company was formerly known as Mangrove Bay Ecommerce Holding (Cayman) and changed its name to Yatsen Holding Limited in January 2019. Yatsen Holding Limited was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China.