Medifast (MED) Competitors

Medifast (NYSE:MED) and USANA Health Sciences (NYSE:USNA) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, MED or USNA?

Medifast has higher earnings, but lower revenue than USANA Health Sciences. Medifast is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than USANA Health Sciences, 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	$543.45M	0.27	$99.42M	-$0.65	-20.54
USANA Health Sciences	$876.24M	0.63	$63.79M	$1.82	16.28

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MED or USNA?

USANA Health Sciences received 15 more outperform votes than Medifast when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.58% of users gave Medifast an outperform vote while only 60.36% of users gave USANA Health Sciences an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Medifast	Outperform Votes 384 63.58%	Underperform Votes 220 36.42%
USANA Health Sciences	Outperform Votes 399 60.36%	Underperform Votes 262 39.64%

Which has more risk and volatility, MED or USNA?

Medifast has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, USANA Health Sciences has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend MED or USNA?

Medifast currently has a consensus target price of $16.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.60%. USANA Health Sciences has a consensus target price of $36.00, suggesting a potential upside of 21.48%. Given Medifast's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Medifast is more favorable than USANA Health Sciences.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medifast	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
USANA Health Sciences	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of MED or USNA?

95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.3% of USANA Health Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Medifast shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of USANA Health Sciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is MED or USNA more profitable?

USANA Health Sciences has a net margin of 6.30% compared to Medifast's net margin of 0.35%.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medifast	0.35%	10.64%	7.57%
USANA Health Sciences	6.30%	10.64%	8.48%

Does the media favor MED or USNA?

In the previous week, Medifast had 3 more articles in the media than USANA Health Sciences. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Medifast and 1 mentions for USANA Health Sciences. Medifast's average media sentiment score of 1.71 beat USANA Health Sciences' score of 1.41 indicating that Medifast is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Medifast	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
USANA Health Sciences	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Medifast beats USANA Health Sciences on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.