Comparing Associated British Foods (OTCMKTS:ASBFY) and Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ)

Associated British Foods (OTCMKTS:ASBFY) and Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Associated British Foods and Utz Brands, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Associated British Foods	2	3	0	1	2.00
Utz Brands	2	2	4	0	2.25

Utz Brands has a consensus target price of $12.86, indicating a potential upside of 72.53%. Given Utz Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Utz Brands is more favorable than Associated British Foods.

Dividends

Associated British Foods pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Utz Brands pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Utz Brands pays out 2,500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Utz Brands has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Associated British Foods and Utz Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Associated British Foods	N/A	N/A	N/A
Utz Brands	0.06%	8.57%	4.18%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Associated British Foods and Utz Brands”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Associated British Foods	$25.41 billion	0.69	$1.34 billion	N/A	N/A
Utz Brands	$1.44 billion	0.74	$800,000.00	$0.01	745.20

Associated British Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Utz Brands.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.0% of Utz Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.7% of Utz Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Associated British Foods has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Utz Brands has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Utz Brands beats Associated British Foods on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Associated British Foods

Associated British Foods plc operates as a diversified food, ingredients, and retail company worldwide. It operates through five segments: Grocery, Ingredients, Agriculture, Sugar, and Retail. The Grocery segment manufactures and sells grocery products, including hot beverages, sugar and sweeteners, vegetable oils, balsamic vinegars, bread and baked goods, cereals, ethnic foods, and meat products to retail, wholesale, and foodservice businesses. The Ingredients segment manufactures bakers' yeast, bakery ingredients, enzymes, lipids, yeast extracts, and cereal specialties. The Agriculture segment manufactures and sells animal feeds; and provides other products and services for the agriculture sector. The Sugar segment is involved in growing, processing, and selling sugar beet and sugar cane to industrial users. The Retail segment is involved in buying and merchandising clothing and accessories through the Primark and Penneys retail chains, which offer women's, men's, and kids wear, as well as beauty, homeware, and accessories. The company was incorporated in 1934 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Associated British Foods plc operates as a subsidiary of Wittington Investments Limited.

About Utz Brands

Utz Brands, Inc. engages in manufacture, marketing, and distribution of snack foods. It offers a range of salty snacks, including salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips, salsa and dips, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp’s, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TORTIYAHS!, etc. The company sells its products to wholesale and other distributors, grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, discount stores, mass merchandisers, membership club stores, hard discounters, and specialty and e-commerce retailers. Utz Brands, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania.