Analyzing Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) and Barfresh Food Group (NASDAQ:BRFH)

Barfresh Food Group (NASDAQ:BRFH) and Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Barfresh Food Group and Darling Ingredients, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barfresh Food Group	2	0	0	0	1.00
Darling Ingredients	0	2	9	1	2.92

Darling Ingredients has a consensus target price of $73.80, suggesting a potential upside of 21.19%. Given Darling Ingredients’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Darling Ingredients is more favorable than Barfresh Food Group.

Profitability

This table compares Barfresh Food Group and Darling Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barfresh Food Group	-17.88%	-295.15%	-30.31%
Darling Ingredients	9.13%	12.98%	6.08%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Barfresh Food Group and Darling Ingredients”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barfresh Food Group	$19.99 million	0.47	-$2.69 million	($0.23)	-2.53
Darling Ingredients	$6.14 billion	1.57	$62.80 million	$3.71	16.41

Darling Ingredients has higher revenue and earnings than Barfresh Food Group. Barfresh Food Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Darling Ingredients, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

22.7% of Barfresh Food Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. 26.7% of Barfresh Food Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Barfresh Food Group has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats Barfresh Food Group on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barfresh Food Group

Barfresh Food Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes ready-to-drink and ready-to-blend frozen beverages in the United States. It offers smoothies, shakes and frappes in various formats comprising ready-to-drink smoothie, easy pour, juice concentrates, and single serve. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc. develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries. The company also collects and transforms various animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as collagen, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstock, green energy, natural casings, and hides. In addition, it recovers and converts used cooking oil and animal fats, and residual bakery products into valuable feed and fuel ingredients. Further, the company provides environmental services, including grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. It primarily operates under the Rendac, Sonac, FASA, Ecoson, Rousselot, Gelnex, and CTH brand names. The company was formerly known as Darling International Inc. and changed its name to Darling Ingredients Inc. in May 2014. Darling Ingredients Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.