Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) Competitors

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) and Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and earnings.

Is HSY or ADM a better dividend stock?

Hershey pays an annual dividend of $4.77 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Archer-Daniels-Midland pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Hershey pays out 51.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Archer-Daniels-Midland pays out 25.1% 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 raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Archer-Daniels-Midland has raised its dividend for 50 consecutive years.

Which has more risk and volatility, HSY or ADM?

Hershey has a beta of 0.34, suggesting that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Archer-Daniels-Midland has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in HSY or ADM?

56.5% of Hershey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Archer-Daniels-Midland shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Hershey shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Archer-Daniels-Midland shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer HSY or ADM?

In the previous week, Hershey had 5 more articles in the media than Archer-Daniels-Midland. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Hershey and 10 mentions for Archer-Daniels-Midland. Hershey's average media sentiment score of 0.77 beat Archer-Daniels-Midland's score of 0.19 indicating that Archer-Daniels-Midland is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hershey	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Archer-Daniels-Midland	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HSY or ADM?

Archer-Daniels-Midland received 42 more outperform votes than Hershey when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.94% of users gave Archer-Daniels-Midland an outperform vote while only 53.94% of users gave Hershey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hershey	Outperform Votes 602 53.94%	Underperform Votes 514 46.06%
Archer-Daniels-Midland	Outperform Votes 644 66.94%	Underperform Votes 318 33.06%

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, HSY or ADM?

Archer-Daniels-Midland has higher revenue and earnings than Hershey. Archer-Daniels-Midland 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	$10.42B	3.75	$1.64B	$9.27	20.60
Archer-Daniels-Midland	$101.85B	0.39	$4.34B	$7.18	10.46

Do analysts recommend HSY or ADM?

Hershey presently has a consensus target price of $244.05, suggesting a potential upside of 27.79%. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a consensus target price of $92.90, suggesting a potential upside of 23.73%. Given Archer-Daniels-Midland's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Hershey is more favorable than Archer-Daniels-Midland.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hershey	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.41
Archer-Daniels-Midland	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57

Is HSY or ADM more profitable?

Hershey has a net margin of 17.11% compared to Hershey's net margin of 4.05%. Archer-Daniels-Midland's return on equity of 54.74% beat Hershey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hershey	17.11%	54.74%	17.34%
Archer-Daniels-Midland	4.05%	16.63%	7.22%

Summary

Archer-Daniels-Midland beats Hershey on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.