Critical Survey: WK Kellogg (KLG) and Its Rivals

WK Kellogg (NYSE:KLG) is one of 49 public companies in the “CONS PD – MISC STPL” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare WK Kellogg to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for WK Kellogg and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WK Kellogg	4	3	0	0	1.43
WK Kellogg Competitors	647	2849	2956	87	2.38

WK Kellogg presently has a consensus target price of $16.86, suggesting a potential downside of 3.81%. As a group, “CONS PD – MISC STPL” companies have a potential upside of 14.47%. Given WK Kellogg’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe WK Kellogg has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares WK Kellogg and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
WK Kellogg	$2.71 billion	$72.00 million	27.38
WK Kellogg Competitors	$13.76 billion	$1.19 billion	19.84

WK Kellogg’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than WK Kellogg. WK Kellogg is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

WK Kellogg has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WK Kellogg’s competitors have a beta of 0.66, meaning that their average share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.7% of WK Kellogg shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.9% of shares of all “CONS PD – MISC STPL” companies are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of WK Kellogg shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.0% of shares of all “CONS PD – MISC STPL” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

WK Kellogg pays an annual dividend of $0.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. WK Kellogg pays out 103.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “CONS PD – MISC STPL” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.2% and pay out 69.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. WK Kellogg has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares WK Kellogg and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WK Kellogg	2.14%	34.88%	5.81%
WK Kellogg Competitors	-5.00%	-201.12%	-2.18%

Summary

WK Kellogg competitors beat WK Kellogg on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About WK Kellogg

WK Kellogg Co operates as a food company in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. It manufactures, markets, and distributes ready-to-eat cereal products primarily under the Frosted Flakes, Special K, Froot Loops, Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Kashi brands. The company was formerly known as North America Cereal Co. and changed its name to WK Kellogg Co in March 2023. The company was incorporated in 2022 and is headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan.