Head to Head Review: Ajinomoto (AJINY) vs. Its Rivals

Ajinomoto (OTCMKTS:AJINY) is one of 69 publicly-traded companies in the “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Ajinomoto to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Ajinomoto has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ajinomoto’s competitors have a beta of 0.83, meaning that their average share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ajinomoto	$10.05 billion	$463.80 million	45.29
Ajinomoto Competitors	$8.12 billion	$399.01 million	23.97

Ajinomoto has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Ajinomoto 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.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

54.4% of shares of all “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies are owned by institutional investors. 14.9% of shares of all “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ajinomoto and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ajinomoto	0	1	0	2	3.33
Ajinomoto Competitors	710	3417	3728	153	2.42

As a group, “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies have a potential upside of 20.12%. Given Ajinomoto’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ajinomoto has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

Ajinomoto pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Ajinomoto pays out 31.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.0% and pay out 33.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ajinomoto	6.02%	10.45%	5.06%
Ajinomoto Competitors	-3.76%	-16.96%	1.87%

Summary

Ajinomoto beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. engages in the seasonings and foods, frozen foods, and healthcare and other businesses in Japan and internationally. The Seasonings and Foods segment offers sauces and seasoning products under the AJI-NO-MOTO, HON-DASHI, Cook Do, Ajinomoto KK Consommé, Pure Select Mayonnaise, Ros Dee, Masako, Aji-ngon, Sazón, Sajiku, and CRISPY FRY names; and solutions and ingredients for foodservice and processed food manufacturers, processed foods, and restaurants, as well as industrial, retail, and other applications. This segment also provides instant noodles under the Knorr Cup Soup and YumYum names; coffee beverages under the Birdy and Blendy brands; powdered drink under the Birdy 3in1 name; MAXIM brand products; Chyotto Zeitakuna Kohiten brand products; and gift sets and office supplies comprising coffee vending machines, tea servers, etc. The Frozen Foods segment offers Chinese dumplings, cooked rice, noodles, desserts, shumai, processed chicken, and other products under the AJINOMOTO FRESH FROZEN, Bernardi, FRED’S, Golden Tiger, José Olé, LingLing, POSADA, and TAI PEI brands. The Healthcare and Other segment provides amino acids for applications in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals and foods; contract development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical intermediates and active ingredients, aseptic fill finish services, etc.; personal care ingredients; and medical foods, crop services, etc. This segment also offers Ajinomoto Build-up Film, an interlayer insulating material for semiconductor packages; fundamental foods under the Glyna and Amino Aile names; sports nutrition supplements under the amino VITAL brand; and functional materials, such as activated carbon, release paper, etc. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.