Smithfield Foods (SFD) Competitors

Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD) and Hershey (NYSE:HSY) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Does the media favor SFD or HSY?

In the previous week, Hershey had 20 more articles in the media than Smithfield Foods. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Hershey and 3 mentions for Smithfield Foods. Hershey's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Smithfield Foods' score of 1.24 indicating that Hershey is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Smithfield Foods	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Hershey	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is SFD or HSY a better dividend stock?

Smithfield Foods pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Hershey pays an annual dividend of $5.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Smithfield Foods pays out 44.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hershey pays out 67.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Hershey has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Smithfield Foods is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend SFD or HSY?

Smithfield Foods presently has a consensus target price of $27.86, suggesting a potential upside of 18.24%. Hershey has a consensus target price of $158.84, suggesting a potential downside of 6.04%. Given Smithfield Foods' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Smithfield Foods is more favorable than Hershey.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smithfield Foods	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Hershey	5 Sell rating(s)	15 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.75

Which has better valuation and earnings, SFD or HSY?

Hershey has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Smithfield Foods. Smithfield Foods 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
Smithfield Foods	$14.47B	0.64	$892.37M	$2.27	10.38
Hershey	$10.75B	3.18	$2.22B	$8.11	20.85

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SFD or HSY?

Hershey received 409 more outperform votes than Smithfield Foods when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.44% of users gave Smithfield Foods an outperform vote while only 50.50% of users gave Hershey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Smithfield Foods	Outperform Votes 196 61.44%	Underperform Votes 123 38.56%
Hershey	Outperform Votes 605 50.50%	Underperform Votes 593 49.50%

Is SFD or HSY more profitable?

Hershey has a net margin of 19.83% compared to Smithfield Foods' net margin of 0.00%. Hershey's return on equity of 44.77% beat Smithfield Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smithfield Foods	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hershey	19.83%	44.77%	15.14%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SFD or HSY?

58.0% of Hershey shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Smithfield Foods shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Hershey shares are owned by 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.

Summary

Hershey beats Smithfield Foods on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.