Analyzing Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) and Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA)

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) and Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flowers Foods	1.59%	16.61%	5.38%
Mama’s Creations	3.08%	16.72%	9.28%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Flowers Foods and Mama’s Creations, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flowers Foods	2	4	0	0	1.67
Mama’s Creations	0	2	4	0	2.67

Flowers Foods currently has a consensus price target of $12.60, suggesting a potential upside of 46.09%. Mama’s Creations has a consensus price target of $17.60, suggesting a potential upside of 9.86%. Given Flowers Foods’ higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Flowers Foods is more favorable than Mama’s Creations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Flowers Foods and Mama’s Creations”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flowers Foods	$5.26 billion	0.35	$83.82 million	$0.40	21.56
Mama’s Creations	$151.31 million	4.30	$3.71 million	$0.11	145.64

Flowers Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Mama’s Creations. Flowers 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.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.5% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.2% of Mama’s Creations shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.6% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Mama’s Creations shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Flowers Foods has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mama’s Creations has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Mama’s Creations beats Flowers Foods on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc. produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs. Freshley's, and Tastykake brand names. The company distributes its products through a direct-store-delivery distribution and a warehouse delivery system, as well as operates bakeries. Its customers include national and regional restaurants, institutions and foodservice distributors, and retail in-store bakeries; wholesale distributors; mass merchandisers, supermarkets, vending outlets, and convenience stores; quick-serve chains, food wholesalers, institutions, dollar stores, and vending companies; and public health care, military commissaries, and prisons, and other governmental institutions. The company was formerly known as Flowers Industries and changed its name to Flowers Foods, Inc. in 2001. Flowers Foods, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia.

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.