Bridgford Foods (NASDAQ:BRID) vs. United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) Financial Contrast

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Bridgford Foods and United Natural Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridgford Foods	1	0	0	0	1.00
United Natural Foods	1	6	3	0	2.20

United Natural Foods has a consensus price target of $46.38, suggesting a potential downside of 6.47%. Given United Natural Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Natural Foods is more favorable than Bridgford Foods.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.7% of Bridgford Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 80.7% of Bridgford Foods 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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bridgford Foods and United Natural Foods”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bridgford Foods	$230.99 million	0.27	-$13.36 million	($1.55)	-4.49
United Natural Foods	$31.78 billion	0.09	-$118.00 million	($0.66)	-75.12

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridgford Foods	-6.07%	-12.27%	-9.60%
United Natural Foods	-0.12%	7.42%	1.57%

Risk and Volatility

Bridgford Foods has a beta of -0.2, indicating that its stock price is 120% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

United Natural Foods beats Bridgford Foods on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bridgford Foods

Bridgford Foods Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes frozen and snack food products in the United States. It operates in two segments, Frozen Food Products and Snack Food Products. The company offers biscuits, bread dough items, roll dough items, and dry sausage and beef jerky products, as well as ready to eat sandwiches and non-refrigerated snack food products. It provides frozen food products to food service and retail customers through wholesalers, cooperatives, and distributors; and snack food items to supermarkets, mass merchandise, and convenience retail stores through customer-owned distribution centers, as well as a direct store delivery network. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Bridgford Foods Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Bridgford Industries Incorporated.

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.