Darling Ingredients (DAR) Competitors

Medifast (NYSE:MED) and Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Do analysts prefer MED or DAR?

Medifast currently has a consensus price target of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 28.60%. Darling Ingredients has a consensus price target of $43.25, indicating a potential upside of 36.39%. Given Darling Ingredients' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Darling Ingredients is more favorable than Medifast.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medifast	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50
Darling Ingredients	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.64

Which has better earnings & valuation, MED or DAR?

Darling Ingredients has higher revenue and earnings than Medifast. Medifast is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Darling Ingredients, 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
Medifast	$602.46M	0.23	$2.09M	$0.32	40.09
Darling Ingredients	$5.70B	0.88	$278.88M	$0.66	48.05

Which has more volatility and risk, MED or DAR?

Medifast has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MED or DAR more profitable?

Darling Ingredients has a net margin of 1.85% compared to Medifast's net margin of 0.76%. Darling Ingredients' return on equity of 2.35% beat Medifast's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medifast	0.76%	2.00%	1.50%
Darling Ingredients	1.85%	2.35%	1.05%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in MED or DAR?

95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Medifast shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media favor MED or DAR?

In the previous week, Darling Ingredients had 7 more articles in the media than Medifast. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Darling Ingredients and 1 mentions for Medifast. Darling Ingredients' average media sentiment score of 1.00 beat Medifast's score of 0.45 indicating that Darling Ingredients is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Medifast	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Darling Ingredients	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats Medifast on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.