Head-To-Head Survey: United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) versus Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE)

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Andersons and United Natural Foods”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Andersons	$11.01 billion	0.21	$95.71 million	$5.18	12.89
United Natural Foods	$31.15 billion	0.09	$84.00 million	$1.34	34.41

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.1% of Andersons shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of Andersons shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of United Natural Foods shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Andersons and United Natural Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Andersons	0	1	3	1	3.00
United Natural Foods	0	8	2	0	2.20

Andersons presently has a consensus target price of $95.00, indicating a potential upside of 42.24%. United Natural Foods has a consensus target price of $50.29, indicating a potential upside of 9.06%. Given Andersons’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Andersons is more favorable than United Natural Foods.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Andersons	1.62%	16.23%	5.84%
United Natural Foods	0.27%	10.51%	2.28%

Risk & Volatility

Andersons has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Andersons beats United Natural Foods on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc. operates in trade, renewables, and nutrient and industrial sectors in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Switzerland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Trade, Renewables, and Nutrient & Industrial. The company’s Trade segment operates grain elevators; stores commodities; and provides grain marketing, risk management, and origination services, as well as sells commodities, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, ethanol, and corn oil. This segment also engages in the commodity merchandising business, as well as offers logistics for physical commodities, such as whole grains, grain products, feed ingredients, domestic fuel products, and other agricultural commodities. Its Renewables segment produces, purchases, and sells ethanol, and co-products, as well as offers facility operations, risk management, and marketing services to the ethanol plants it invests in and operates. The company’s Nutrient & Industrial segment manufactures, distributes, and retails agricultural and related plant nutrients, liquid industrial products, corncob-based products, and pelleted lime and gypsum products, as well as turf fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide products; and crop nutrients, crop protection chemicals, and seed products, as well as provides application and agronomic services to commercial and family farmers. In addition, this segment produces corncob-based products for laboratory animal bedding and private-label cat litter, as well as absorbents, blast cleaners, carriers, and polishers; professional lawn care products for golf course and turf care markets; fertilizer and weed, and pest control products; dry and liquid agricultural nutrients, pelleted lime, gypsum, and soil amendments; and micronutrients, as well as industrial products comprising nitrogen reagents, calcium nitrate, deicers, and dust abatement products. The Andersons, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in Maumee, Ohio.

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.