Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) versus TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) Head-To-Head Review

Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) and TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Seneca Foods has a beta of 0.02, suggesting that its share price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

42.5% of Seneca Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 8.4% of Seneca Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Seneca Foods and TreeHouse Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seneca Foods	0	0	1	0	3.00
TreeHouse Foods	1	7	0	0	1.88

TreeHouse Foods has a consensus price target of $23.40, indicating a potential downside of 4.22%. Given TreeHouse Foods’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe TreeHouse Foods is more favorable than Seneca Foods.

Profitability

This table compares Seneca Foods and TreeHouse Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seneca Foods	5.58%	12.30%	6.65%
TreeHouse Foods	-7.25%	5.52%	2.06%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Seneca Foods and TreeHouse Foods”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seneca Foods	$1.58 billion	0.60	$41.22 million	$13.00	10.78
TreeHouse Foods	$3.35 billion	0.37	$26.90 million	($4.80)	-5.09

Seneca Foods has higher earnings, but lower revenue than TreeHouse Foods. TreeHouse Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seneca Foods, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Seneca Foods beats TreeHouse Foods on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seneca Foods

Seneca Foods Corporation provides packaged fruits and vegetables in the United States and internationally. The company offers canned, frozen, and jarred produce; jarred fruit; and snack chips and other food products under the private label, as well as under various national and regional brands that the company owns or licenses, including Seneca, Libby’s, Aunt Nellie’s, Cherryman, Green Valley, and READ. In addition, it packs canned and frozen vegetables under contract packing agreements. Further, the company engages in the sale of cans, ends, and seeds, as well as trucking and aircraft operations. It provides its products to grocery outlets, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, limited assortment stores, club stores, and dollar stores; specialty retailers; and food service distributors, restaurant chains, industrial markets, other food packagers, and export customers in approximately 55 countries, as well as federal, state, and local governments for school and other feeding programs. Seneca Foods Corporation was incorporated in 1949 and is headquartered in Fairport, New York.

About TreeHouse Foods

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. manufactures and distributes private brands snacks and beverages in the United States and internationally. The company provides snacking products, such as crackers, pretzels, in-store bakery items, frozen griddle items, cookies, and candies; and beverage and drink mixes, including non-dairy creamer, coffee, broths/stocks, powdered beverages and other blends, tea, and ready-to-drink-beverages. It also offers groceries comprising pickles, refrigerated dough, hot cereal, and cheese and puddings, as well as natural, organic, and gluten-free products. The company sells its products through various distribution channels, including retailers, foodservice distributors, food-away-from-home customers, refrigerated and frozen formats, and co-manufacturers, as well as industrial and export, which includes food manufacturers and repackagers of foodservice products. TreeHouse Foods, Inc. was founded in 1862 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.