Head-To-Head Comparison: Maison Solutions (NASDAQ:MSS) & Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO)

Maison Solutions (NASDAQ:MSS) and Arko (NASDAQ:ARKO) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

2.4% of Maison Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.3% of Arko shares are held by institutional investors. 21.6% of Arko shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Maison Solutions and Arko, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Maison Solutions	0	0	0	0	0.00
Arko	0	2	0	0	2.00

Arko has a consensus price target of $6.13, indicating a potential downside of 14.57%. Given Arko’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Arko is more favorable than Maison Solutions.

Volatility and Risk

Maison Solutions has a beta of 8.01, meaning that its share price is 701% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Arko has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its share price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Maison Solutions and Arko”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Maison Solutions	$91.19 million	0.26	-$3.34 million	($0.16)	-7.56
Arko	$8.97 billion	0.09	$34.37 million	$0.16	44.81

Arko has higher revenue and earnings than Maison Solutions. Maison Solutions 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 Maison Solutions and Arko’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Maison Solutions	-3.16%	-24.68%	-3.96%
Arko	0.27%	8.88%	0.66%

Summary

Arko beats Maison Solutions on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Maison Solutions

Maison Solutions Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as the specialty grocery retailer in California. The company offers perishable products, such as meat, seafood, vegetables, and fruit; non-perishable products, including grocery products comprising cooking utensils, canned foods, Chinese and Asian seasonings and spices, and snacks, as well as liquor, cigarette, lottery, newspaper, reusable bag, non-food, and health products, and general merchandise, beauty care, pharmacy, fuel, and other items and services in its stores. It also offers its products online. The company was formerly known as Maison International, Inc. and changed its name to Maison Solutions Inc. in September 2021. Maison Solutions Inc. was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Monterey Park, California.

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.