Pilgrim's Pride (PPC) Competitors

Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) and Hershey (NYSE:HSY) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in PPC or HSY?

Hershey received 247 more outperform votes than Pilgrim's Pride when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.17% of users gave Pilgrim's Pride an outperform vote while only 50.54% of users gave Hershey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Pilgrim's Pride	Outperform Votes 358 60.17%	Underperform Votes 237 39.83%
Hershey	Outperform Votes 605 50.54%	Underperform Votes 592 49.46%

Do analysts recommend PPC or HSY?

Pilgrim's Pride presently has a consensus price target of $48.40, indicating a potential downside of 0.49%. Hershey has a consensus price target of $161.40, indicating a potential upside of 1.84%. Given Hershey's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Hershey is more favorable than Pilgrim's Pride.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pilgrim's Pride	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.17
Hershey	5 Sell rating(s)	15 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.75

Does the media favor PPC or HSY?

In the previous week, Hershey had 13 more articles in the media than Pilgrim's Pride. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Hershey and 9 mentions for Pilgrim's Pride. Pilgrim's Pride's average media sentiment score of 1.75 beat Hershey's score of 1.11 indicating that Pilgrim's Pride is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Pilgrim's Pride	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Hershey	15 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PPC or HSY more profitable?

Hershey has a net margin of 19.83% compared to Pilgrim's Pride's net margin of 6.08%. Hershey's return on equity of 44.77% beat Pilgrim's Pride's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pilgrim's Pride	6.08%	32.83%	12.52%
Hershey	19.83%	44.77%	15.14%

Which has more risk and volatility, PPC or HSY?

Pilgrim's Pride has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hershey has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its share price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in PPC or HSY?

16.6% of Pilgrim's Pride shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.0% of Hershey shares are held by institutional investors. 82.6% of Pilgrim's Pride shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Hershey shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, PPC or HSY?

Hershey has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Pilgrim's Pride. Pilgrim's Pride is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hershey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pilgrim's Pride	$17.98B	0.64	$1.09B	$5.07	9.59
Hershey	$10.75B	2.98	$2.22B	$8.11	19.54

Summary

Hershey beats Pilgrim's Pride on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.