Contrasting Ahold (OTCMKTS:ADRNY) & Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD)

Ahold (OTCMKTS:ADRNY) and Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Dividends

Ahold pays an annual dividend of €0.93 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Church & Dwight pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Ahold pays out 42.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Church & Dwight pays out 55.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Church & Dwight has raised its dividend for 29 consecutive years. Ahold is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Ahold and Church & Dwight’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ahold	2.02%	15.88%	4.71%
Church & Dwight	8.66%	19.27%	9.55%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ahold and Church & Dwight”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ahold	$96.70 billion	0.40	$1.91 billion	€2.19	19.51
Church & Dwight	$6.11 billion	3.46	$585.30 million	$2.12	40.88

Ahold has higher revenue and earnings than Church & Dwight. Ahold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Church & Dwight, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Ahold has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Church & Dwight has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Ahold and Church & Dwight, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ahold	0	3	0	2	2.80
Church & Dwight	5	7	7	0	2.11

Church & Dwight has a consensus target price of $100.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.37%. Given Church & Dwight’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Church & Dwight is more favorable than Ahold.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.2% of Ahold shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of Church & Dwight shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Church & Dwight shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Church & Dwight beats Ahold on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ahold

Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. operates retail food stores and e-commerce in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company's stores offer produce, dairy, meat, deli, bakery, seafood, and frozen products; grocery, beer, and wine; floral, pet food, health and beauty care, kitchen and cookware, gardening tools, general merchandise articles, electronics, newspapers and magazines, tobacco, etc.; gasoline; and pharmacy products. It operates its supermarkets, convenience stores, and online stores under the Food Lion, Stop & Shop, The GIANT Company, Hannaford, Giant Food, FreshDirect, Albert Heijn, bol.com, Etos, Gall & Gall, Delhaize, Albert, Alfa Beta Vassilopoulos, Mega Image, Delhaize Serbia, Peapod Digital labs, and Retail Business Service brands. The company was formerly known as Koninklijke Ahold N.V. and changed its name to Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. in July 2016. Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Zaandam, the Netherlands.

About Church & Dwight

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements. The Consumer International segment is involved in the personal care, household and over-the-counter products in international subsidiary markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, China, and the United Kingdom. The SPD segment consists of sales to businesses and participates in three product areas namely, animal nutrition, specialty chemicals, and commercial and professional. The Corporate segment includes equity in earnings of affiliates. The company was founded by Dwight John and Austin Church in 1846 and is headquartered in Ewing, NJ.