COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR COMPANY vs Cintas Corporation, two Apparel stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Where COLM and CTAS diverge most: on implied growth (priced in), COLM reads -4.5% and CTAS reads +27.7%; on debt / equity, COLM reads 0.00 and CTAS reads 0.47. The rest of the comparable metrics sit closer together. On valuation, today's COLM price has a different growth bar priced in than CTAS (-4.5% implied for COLM vs +27.7% for CTAS); the higher figure is the steeper assumption to clear, not a better or worse stock. What COLM's price implies is a bet that sits within the historical range (whole-company basis). What CTAS's price implies is a demanding bet versus history and the cohort (whole-company basis). The bull and bear cases for each are in their full reports below.
| Metric | COLM | CTAS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $57.02 | $202.32 |
| Market cap | $2.9B | $81.8B |
| Sector | Apparel | Apparel |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | -4.5% | +27.7% |
| P/E | 14.8 | 39.9 |
| P/B | 1.83 | 15.72 |
| P/S | 0.86 | 7.08 |
| EV/EBITDA | 7.6 | 28.4 |
| Revenue growth | +0.1% | +9.5% |
| Gross margin | 58.3% | 51.5% |
| Operating margin | 5.0% | 23.6% |
| Net margin | 6.0% | 17.8% |
| Return on equity | 12.9% | 39.6% |
| Return on assets | 7.4% | 19.3% |
| Return on invested capital | 11.7% | 28.3% |
| FCF yield | 11.0% | 2.5% |
| Dividend yield | 2.1% | 0.9% |
| Debt / equity | 0.00 | 0.47 |
| Current ratio | 2.49 | 1.45 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 4.03 | 9.21 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 6 / 9 | 8 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.