e.l.f. Beauty (NYSE:ELF) and Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for e.l.f. Beauty and Flowers Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
e.l.f. Beauty | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2.67 |
Flowers Foods | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
e.l.f. Beauty currently has a consensus target price of $24.2222, indicating a potential downside of 5.57%. Flowers Foods has a consensus target price of $24.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.34%. Given Flowers Foods' higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Flowers Foods is more favorable than e.l.f. Beauty.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
86.1% of e.l.f. Beauty shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.5% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.0% of e.l.f. Beauty shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.2% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares e.l.f. Beauty and Flowers Foods' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
e.l.f. Beauty | 3.29% | 8.53% | 4.57% |
Flowers Foods | 2.30% | 19.41% | 7.65% |
Volatility & Risk
e.l.f. Beauty has a beta of 2.02, meaning that its share price is 102% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flowers Foods has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares e.l.f. Beauty and Flowers Foods' gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
e.l.f. Beauty | $282.85 million | 4.65 | $17.88 million | $0.42 | 61.07 |
Flowers Foods | $4.12 billion | 1.12 | $164.54 million | $0.96 | 22.66 |
Flowers Foods has higher revenue and earnings than e.l.f. Beauty. Flowers Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than e.l.f. Beauty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
e.l.f. Beauty beats Flowers Foods on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.