Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) vs. SpartanNash (NASDAQ:SPTN) Financial Review

SpartanNash (NASDAQ:SPTN) and Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares SpartanNash and Sprouts Farmers Market’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SpartanNash	-0.11%	8.26%	2.51%
Sprouts Farmers Market	5.53%	34.20%	12.43%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

84.6% of SpartanNash shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of SpartanNash shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Sprouts Farmers Market 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.

Volatility & Risk

SpartanNash has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sprouts Farmers Market has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for SpartanNash and Sprouts Farmers Market, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SpartanNash	0	2	0	0	2.00
Sprouts Farmers Market	0	9	5	0	2.36

SpartanNash currently has a consensus target price of $18.45, suggesting a potential downside of 30.56%. Sprouts Farmers Market has a consensus target price of $167.86, suggesting a potential upside of 1.33%. Given Sprouts Farmers Market’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sprouts Farmers Market is more favorable than SpartanNash.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SpartanNash and Sprouts Farmers Market”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SpartanNash	$9.55 billion	0.09	$300,000.00	($0.32)	-83.03
Sprouts Farmers Market	$7.72 billion	2.10	$380.60 million	$4.45	37.22

Sprouts Farmers Market has lower revenue, but higher earnings than SpartanNash. SpartanNash is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sprouts Farmers Market, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Sprouts Farmers Market beats SpartanNash on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SpartanNash

SpartanNash Company distributes and retails grocery products in the United States of America. It operates through Wholesale and Retail segments. The Wholesale segment offers grocery products and perishable food products, including dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, delicatessen items, bakery goods, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, beverages, tobacco products, health and beauty care, and pharmaceutical products to independent retailers, national accounts, food service distributors, e-commerce providers, and corporate owned retail stores. This segment offers various support services to independent retailers. The Retail segment operates retail stores, fuel centers, and pharmacies primarily under the banners of Family Fare, Martin’s Super Markets, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Grocery, Family Fresh Market, Supermercado Nuestra Familia, Forest Hills Foods, Dillonvale IGA, and Fresh City Market. It supplies private brand products to military commissaries. The company was formerly known as Spartan Stores, Inc. and changed its name to SpartanNash Company in November 2013. SpartanNash Company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

About Sprouts Farmers Market

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the retailing of fresh, natural, and organic food products under the Sprouts brand in the United States. It offers perishable product categories, including fresh produce, meat and meat alternatives, seafood, deli, bakery, floral, and dairy and dairy alternatives; and non-perishable product categories, such as grocery, vitamins and supplements, bulk items, frozen foods, beer and wine, and natural health and body care. Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. was founded in 1943 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.