Contrasting BellRing Brands (NYSE:BRBR) & Ingredion (NYSE:INGR)

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) and BellRing Brands (NYSE:BRBR) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.3% of Ingredion shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.0% of BellRing Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Ingredion shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of BellRing Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Ingredion and BellRing Brands, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ingredion	1	5	1	0	2.00
BellRing Brands	1	6	11	0	2.56

Ingredion presently has a consensus price target of $124.33, suggesting a potential upside of 14.96%. BellRing Brands has a consensus price target of $42.53, suggesting a potential upside of 35.79%. Given BellRing Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe BellRing Brands is more favorable than Ingredion.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ingredion and BellRing Brands”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ingredion	$7.43 billion	0.92	$647.00 million	$10.03	10.78
BellRing Brands	$2.32 billion	1.62	$216.20 million	$1.68	18.65

Ingredion has higher revenue and earnings than BellRing Brands. Ingredion is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BellRing Brands, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ingredion and BellRing Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ingredion	9.07%	18.14%	9.68%
BellRing Brands	9.33%	-95.87%	29.63%

Volatility and Risk

Ingredion has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BellRing Brands has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BellRing Brands beats Ingredion on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ingredion

Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from wet milling and processing corn, and other starch-based materials to a range of industries in North America, South America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers starch products for use in a range of processed foods; cornstarch; specialty paper starches for enhanced drainage, fiber retention, oil and grease resistance, improved printability, and biochemical oxygen demand control; starches and specialty starches for textile industry; industrial starches are used in the production of construction materials, textiles, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, as well as in mining and water filtration; and specialty industrial starches for use in biomaterial applications, including biodegradable plastics, fabric softeners and detergents, hair and skin care applications, dusting powders for surgical gloves, and in the production of glass fiber and insulation. It also provides sweetener products comprising glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin, glucose syrup solids, and non-genetically modified organism syrups for applications in food and beverage products, such as baked goods, snack foods, canned fruits, condiments, candy and other sweets, dairy products, ice cream, jams and jellies, prepared mixes, table syrups, and beverages. In addition, the company sells refined corn oil, corn gluten feed, and corn gluten meal; and other products, including fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees, and essences, as well as pulse proteins and hydrocolloids systems and blends. The company was formerly known as Corn Products International, Inc. and changed its name to Ingredion Incorporated in June 2012. Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois.

About BellRing Brands

BellRing Brands, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various nutrition products in the United States. The company offers ready-to-drink (RTD) protein shakes, other RTD beverages, powders, nutrition bars, and other products primarily under the Premier Protein and Dymatize brands. It distributes its products through club, food, drug, mass, eCommerce, specialty, and convenience channels. BellRing Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.