Contrasting Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) & United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI)

United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) and Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mama’s Creations has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for United Natural Foods and Mama’s Creations, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Natural Foods	1	7	3	0	2.18
Mama’s Creations	0	1	4	1	3.00

United Natural Foods currently has a consensus target price of $37.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.01%. Mama’s Creations has a consensus target price of $17.60, suggesting a potential upside of 30.56%. Given Mama’s Creations’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Mama’s Creations is more favorable than United Natural Foods.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.2% of Mama’s Creations shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of United Natural Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Mama’s Creations shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares United Natural Foods and Mama’s Creations’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Natural Foods	-0.32%	4.35%	0.90%
Mama’s Creations	3.08%	16.72%	9.28%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Natural Foods and Mama’s Creations”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Natural Foods	$31.78 billion	0.07	-$118.00 million	($1.66)	-20.45
Mama’s Creations	$123.33 million	4.44	$3.71 million	$0.11	122.55

Mama’s Creations has lower revenue, but higher earnings than United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mama’s Creations, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Mama’s Creations beats United Natural Foods on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Wholesale and Retail. The company offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, wellness and personal care items, and bulk and foodservice products. It also provides nuts, dried fruit, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections under the Woodstock Farms Manufacturing name; organic, non-GMO project verified, and specialty food and non-food items under the Blue Marble brand name; pet food under the WILD HARVEST brand name; and various products under the ESSENTIAL EVERYDAY, SHOPPERS VALUE, Field Day, EQUALINE, CULINARY CIRCLE, and STONE RIDGE CREAMERY brand names. In addition, the company provides home, health and beauty care, and pharmacy products, as well as private label products through a network of Cub Foods and Shoppers retail grocery stores; and retail store support, pricing strategy, shelf and planogram management, advertising, couponing, ecommerce, consumer convenience, store design, equipment sourcing, electronic payments processing, network and data hosting, point-of-sale hardware and software, automation tools, sustainability, and administrative back-office solution services. Further, it offers consumer and trade marketing programs, and programs to support suppliers in understanding its markets. The company serves chains, independent retailers, and supernatural chains, as well as foodservice, ecommerce, conventional military business, and other sales customers. United Natural Foods, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.

About Mama’s Creations

Mama’s Creations, Inc. engages in the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of beef meatballs with sauce, turkey meatballs with sauce, beef meat loaf, sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan, and other similar meats and sauces. Its products include beef meatballs, turkey meatballs, stuffed meatballs, lasagna roll ups, retail ready meals, bulk deli, single-size pasta bowls, and packaged refrigerated products. Its brands include MamaMancini’s, Creative Salads, and The Olive Branch. The company was founded by Daniel Dougherty on July 22, 2009 and is headquartered in East Rutherford, NJ.