Reviewing Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) & Greif Bros. (NYSE:GEF.B)

Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) and Greif Bros. (NYSE:GEF.B) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Amcor and Greif Bros., as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Amcor	0	2	8	0	2.80
Greif Bros.	0	0	0	0	0.00

Amcor presently has a consensus target price of $11.51, indicating a potential upside of 23.94%. Given Amcor’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Amcor is more favorable than Greif Bros..

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Amcor and Greif Bros.”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Amcor	$13.64 billion	0.98	$730.00 million	$0.56	16.59
Greif Bros.	$5.45 billion	0.56	$268.80 million	$3.62	17.71

Amcor has higher revenue and earnings than Greif Bros.. Amcor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Greif Bros., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.1% of Amcor shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.1% of Greif Bros. shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Amcor shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.2% of Greif Bros. shares are held 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.

Dividends

Amcor pays an annual dividend of $0.51 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Greif Bros. pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Amcor pays out 91.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Greif Bros. pays out 89.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Amcor has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Amcor is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Amcor has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Greif Bros. has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Amcor and Greif Bros.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Amcor	5.99%	26.49%	6.11%
Greif Bros.	3.74%	10.21%	3.23%

Summary

Amcor beats Greif Bros. on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Amcor

Amcor plc develops, produces, and sells packaging products in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The company operates through two segments, Flexibles and Rigid Packaging. The Flexibles segment provides flexible and film packaging products in the food and beverage, medical and pharmaceutical, fresh produce, snack food, personal care, and other industries. The Rigid Packaging segment offers rigid containers for various beverage and food products, including carbonated soft drinks, water, juices, sports drinks, milk-based beverages, spirits and beer, sauces, dressings, spreads, and personal care items; and plastic caps for various applications. The company sells its products through its direct sales force. Amcor plc was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

About Greif Bros.

Greif, Inc. produces and sells industrial packaging products and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services; Paper Packaging & Services; Flexible Products & Services; and Land Management. The Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services segment offers rigid industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services. This segment sells its products to customers in the chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agricultural, pharmaceutical and minerals, and other industries. The Paper Packaging & Services segment provides containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated containers, and other corrugated and specialty products to customers in the packaging, automotive, food, and building products markets. This segment's corrugated container products are used to ship various products, such as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, automotive components, books, and furniture, as well as various other applications. The Flexible Products & Services segment offers flexible intermediate bulk containers comprising polypropylene-based woven fabric, as well as related services to the agricultural, food, and other industries. The Land Management segment engages in harvesting and regeneration of timber properties; and sale of timberland and special use land. As of October 31, 2020, this segment owned approximately 244,000 acres of timber property in the southeastern United States. The company was formerly known as Greif Bros. Corporation and changed its name to Greif, Inc. in 2001. Greif, Inc. was founded in 1877 and is based in Delaware, Ohio.