Financial Comparison: United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) & Marine Harvest ASA (OTCMKTS:MHGVY)

Marine Harvest ASA (OTCMKTS:MHGVY) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Marine Harvest ASA has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and United Natural Foods”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marine Harvest ASA	$6.06 billion	1.73	$506.96 million	$0.70	29.03
United Natural Foods	$30.98 billion	0.05	-$112.00 million	($1.15)	-23.88

Marine Harvest ASA has higher earnings, but lower revenue than United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Marine Harvest ASA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of United Natural Foods shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Marine Harvest ASA and United Natural Foods, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marine Harvest ASA	0	3	0	1	2.50
United Natural Foods	0	7	2	0	2.22

United Natural Foods has a consensus target price of $28.1250, indicating a potential upside of 2.40%. Given United Natural Foods’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Natural Foods is more favorable than Marine Harvest ASA.

Profitability

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and United Natural Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marine Harvest ASA	5.85%	14.06%	6.66%
United Natural Foods	-0.21%	3.13%	0.66%

Summary

Marine Harvest ASA beats United Natural Foods on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Marine Harvest ASA

Mowi ASA, a seafood company, farms, produces, and supplies Atlantic salmon products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Feed, Farming, and Sales and Marketing. The company is involved in the salmon feed production, salmon farming and primary processing, and seafood secondary processing activities. It offers whole fish, plain and marinated fillets and steaks, hot- and cold-smoked salmon, burgers and tartars, patties, gravad, sushi, and breaded products under the Ducktrap, MOWI, and Supreme Salmon brands. The company was formerly known as Marine Harvest ASA and changed its name to Mowi ASA in December 2018. Mowi ASA was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Bergen, Norway.

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Wholesale and Retail. The company offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, wellness and personal care items, and bulk and foodservice products. It also provides nuts, dried fruit, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections under the Woodstock Farms Manufacturing name; organic, non-GMO project verified, and specialty food and non-food items under the Blue Marble brand name; pet food under the WILD HARVEST brand name; and various products under the ESSENTIAL EVERYDAY, SHOPPERS VALUE, Field Day, EQUALINE, CULINARY CIRCLE, and STONE RIDGE CREAMERY brand names. In addition, the company provides home, health and beauty care, and pharmacy products, as well as private label products through a network of Cub Foods and Shoppers retail grocery stores; and retail store support, pricing strategy, shelf and planogram management, advertising, couponing, ecommerce, consumer convenience, store design, equipment sourcing, electronic payments processing, network and data hosting, point-of-sale hardware and software, automation tools, sustainability, and administrative back-office solution services. Further, it offers consumer and trade marketing programs, and programs to support suppliers in understanding its markets. The company serves chains, independent retailers, and supernatural chains, as well as foodservice, ecommerce, conventional military business, and other sales customers. United Natural Foods, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.