United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) and Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
81.8% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.1% of Pilgrim's Pride shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 78.7% of Pilgrim's Pride shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
United Natural Foods has a beta of 1.51, suggesting that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pilgrim's Pride has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares United Natural Foods and Pilgrim's Pride's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| United Natural Foods | 0.41% | 15.85% | 2.35% |
| Pilgrim's Pride | 1.55% | 9.83% | 3.33% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for United Natural Foods and Pilgrim's Pride, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| United Natural Foods | 2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Pilgrim's Pride | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2.75 |
United Natural Foods currently has a consensus target price of $25.6667, indicating a potential downside of 27.27%. Pilgrim's Pride has a consensus target price of $23.00, indicating a potential downside of 6.28%. Given Pilgrim's Pride's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pilgrim's Pride is more favorable than United Natural Foods.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares United Natural Foods and Pilgrim's Pride's revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| United Natural Foods | $26.51 billion | 0.07 | $-274,140,000.00 | $2.72 | 12.97 |
| Pilgrim's Pride | $11.41 billion | 0.52 | $455.92 million | $1.62 | 15.15 |
Pilgrim's Pride has lower revenue, but higher earnings than United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pilgrim's Pride, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Pilgrim's Pride beats United Natural Foods on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
