Contrasting John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) and Danone (OTCMKTS:DANOY)

Danone (OTCMKTS:DANOY) and John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Dividends

Danone pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. John B. Sanfilippo & Son pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. John B. Sanfilippo & Son pays out 15.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. John B. Sanfilippo & Son has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.1% of Danone shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Danone shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.2% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Danone and John B. Sanfilippo & Son, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Danone	1	2	2	1	2.50
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	0	2	1	0	2.33

John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a consensus target price of $109.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.56%. Given John B. Sanfilippo & Son’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe John B. Sanfilippo & Son is more favorable than Danone.

Profitability

This table compares Danone and John B. Sanfilippo & Son’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Danone	N/A	N/A	N/A
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	5.76%	18.11%	10.88%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Danone and John B. Sanfilippo & Son”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Danone	$30.86 billion	1.64	$2.06 billion	N/A	N/A
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	$1.16 billion	0.78	$58.93 million	$5.70	13.70

Danone has higher revenue and earnings than John B. Sanfilippo & Son.

Volatility & Risk

Danone has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its stock price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About Danone

Danone S.A. operates in the food and beverage industry in Europe, Ukraine, North America, China, North Asia, the Oceania, Latin America, rest of Asia, Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company operates through Essential Dairy & Plant-Based, Specialized Nutrition, and Waters segments. It produces and distributes yogurts, dairy products, coffee creamers and drinks, beverages, plant-based products, ice creams, frozen desserts, and cheese products under the Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette, Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, Danone, Light & Fit, Oikos, YoPRO, International Delight, SToK, Silk, Follow Your Heart, and So Delicious. The company also provides specialized nutrition, including formulas and complementary feeding for babies and young children; and special medical purposes food for children and adults under the Aptamil, Nutrilon, Gallia, Cow & Gate, Bebelac, and Blédina brands. In addition, it offers tube feeding products under the Nutrison name; and oral nutritional supplements under the Fortimel and NutriDrink names. Further, the company provides mineral waters from natural sources, waters infused with natural fruit extracts, fruit juices, and vitamins under the evian, Volvic, AQUA, Mizone, Bonafont, Salus, Hayat, Sirma, Font Vella, Lanjarón, and Zywiec Zdroj brands. It distributes its products through retail chains and traditional market outlets; convenience stores; hotels, restaurants, and coffee outlets; hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies; and e-commerce channels. The company was formerly known as Groupe Danone and changed its name to Danone S.A. in April 2009. Danone S.A. was incorporated in 1899 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About John B. Sanfilippo & Son

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. engages in the processing and distribution of nuts and nut-related products. It offers peanuts, pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and other nuts under the brands of Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, Squirrel Brand, and Southern Style Nuts. The company was founded by Gaspare Sanfilippo and John B. Sanfilippo in 1922 and is headquartered in Elgin, IL.