Critical Comparison: Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) versus Medifast (NYSE:MED)

Medifast (NYSE:MED) and Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.0% of Celsius shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Medifast shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Celsius shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Medifast and Celsius, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medifast	1	1	0	0	1.50
Celsius	2	3	20	0	2.72

Medifast presently has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 55.31%. Celsius has a consensus target price of $62.95, indicating a potential upside of 61.45%. Given Celsius’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Celsius is more favorable than Medifast.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Medifast and Celsius”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medifast	$429.70 million	0.27	$2.09 million	$0.01	1,062.40
Celsius	$2.13 billion	4.73	$145.07 million	$0.10	389.90

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

Risk & Volatility

Medifast has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Celsius has a beta of 1.34, suggesting that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Medifast and Celsius’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medifast	0.76%	2.00%	1.50%
Celsius	7.91%	36.88%	10.24%

Summary

Celsius beats Medifast on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medifast

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of weight loss, weight management, and healthy living products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. It offers bars, puffs, cereal, crunchers, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, OPTAVIA ACTIVE, and Optimal Health brand names. The company markets its products through point-of-sale transactions, as well as through ecommerce platform. Medifast, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

About Celsius

Celsius Holdings, Inc. develops, processes, markets, distributes, and sells functional energy drinks and liquid supplements in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canadian, European, Middle Eastern, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company offers CELSIUS, a fitness drink or supplement designed to accelerate metabolism and burn body fat; various flavors and carbonated and non-carbonated functional energy drinks under the CELSIUS Originals and Vibe name, as well as functional energy drink under the CELSIUS Essentials and CELSIUS On-the-Go Powder names; and CELSIUS ready-to drink products. It distributes its products through direct-to-store delivery, distributors, supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores, nutritional stores, and mass merchants, as well as health clubs, gyms, the military, and e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Vector Ventures, Inc. and changed its name to Celsius Holdings, Inc. in January 2007. Celsius Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.