Head to Head Contrast: Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) vs. Chefs’ Warehouse (NASDAQ:CHEF)

Chefs’ Warehouse (NASDAQ:CHEF) and Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Chefs’ Warehouse and Ingredion, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chefs’ Warehouse	0	1	6	1	3.00
Ingredion	0	3	2	0	2.40

Chefs’ Warehouse currently has a consensus target price of $69.67, suggesting a potential upside of 19.13%. Ingredion has a consensus target price of $151.40, suggesting a potential upside of 25.10%. Given Ingredion’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ingredion is more favorable than Chefs’ Warehouse.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Chefs’ Warehouse and Ingredion”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chefs’ Warehouse	$3.79 billion	0.63	$55.48 million	$1.60	36.55
Ingredion	$7.43 billion	1.05	$647.00 million	$10.25	11.81

Ingredion has higher revenue and earnings than Chefs’ Warehouse. Ingredion is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chefs’ Warehouse, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Chefs’ Warehouse has a beta of 1.76, indicating that its stock price is 76% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingredion has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.6% of Chefs’ Warehouse shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.3% of Ingredion shares are held by institutional investors. 11.5% of Chefs’ Warehouse shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Ingredion shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Chefs’ Warehouse and Ingredion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chefs’ Warehouse	1.76%	13.60%	3.90%
Ingredion	9.24%	19.04%	10.09%

Summary

Ingredion beats Chefs’ Warehouse on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Chefs’ Warehouse

The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East, and Canada. The company’s product portfolio includes specialty food products, such as artisan charcuterie, specialty cheeses, unique oils and vinegars, truffles, caviar, chocolate, and pastry products; and center-of-the-plate products consisting of custom cut beef, seafood, and hormone-free poultry, as well as broadline food products comprising cooking oils, butter, eggs, milk, and flour. The company serves menu-driven independent restaurants, fine dining establishments, country clubs, hotels, caterers, culinary schools, bakeries, patisseries, chocolatiers, cruise lines, casinos, and specialty food stores. It markets its center-of-the-plate products directly to consumers through a mail and e-commerce platform. The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

About Ingredion

Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from wet milling and processing corn, and other starch-based materials to a range of industries in North America, South America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers starch products for use in a range of processed foods; cornstarch; specialty paper starches for enhanced drainage, fiber retention, oil and grease resistance, improved printability, and biochemical oxygen demand control; starches and specialty starches for textile industry; industrial starches are used in the production of construction materials, textiles, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, as well as in mining and water filtration; and specialty industrial starches for use in biomaterial applications, including biodegradable plastics, fabric softeners and detergents, hair and skin care applications, dusting powders for surgical gloves, and in the production of glass fiber and insulation. It also provides sweetener products comprising glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin, glucose syrup solids, and non-genetically modified organism syrups for applications in food and beverage products, such as baked goods, snack foods, canned fruits, condiments, candy and other sweets, dairy products, ice cream, jams and jellies, prepared mixes, table syrups, and beverages. In addition, the company sells refined corn oil, corn gluten feed, and corn gluten meal; and other products, including fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees, and essences, as well as pulse proteins and hydrocolloids systems and blends. The company was formerly known as Corn Products International, Inc. and changed its name to Ingredion Incorporated in June 2012. Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois.