Smithfield Foods (SFD) Competitors

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

Do analysts rate HSY or SFD?

Hershey currently has a consensus target price of $161.40, indicating a potential upside of 6.63%. Smithfield Foods has a consensus target price of $27.86, indicating a potential upside of 21.12%. Given Smithfield Foods' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Smithfield Foods is more favorable than Hershey.

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

Does the media favor HSY or SFD?

In the previous week, Hershey had 18 more articles in the media than Smithfield Foods. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Hershey and 3 mentions for Smithfield Foods. Hershey's average media sentiment score of 1.22 beat Smithfield Foods' score of 0.13 indicating that Hershey is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hershey	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Smithfield Foods	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is HSY or SFD a better dividend stock?

Hershey pays an annual dividend of $5.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Smithfield Foods pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Hershey pays out 67.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Smithfield Foods pays out 44.1% 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 increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Smithfield Foods is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, HSY or SFD?

Hershey has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
Hershey	$10.75B	2.85	$2.22B	$8.11	18.66
Smithfield Foods	$14.47B	0.62	$892.37M	$2.27	10.13

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HSY or SFD?

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 50.54% of users gave Hershey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hershey	Outperform Votes 605 50.54%	Underperform Votes 592 49.46%
Smithfield Foods	Outperform Votes 196 61.44%	Underperform Votes 123 38.56%

Is HSY or SFD 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
Hershey	19.83%	44.77%	15.14%
Smithfield Foods	N/A	N/A	N/A

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HSY or SFD?

58.0% of Hershey shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Hershey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Smithfield Foods shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

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