Analyzing TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) and Nocera (NASDAQ:NCRA)

TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) and Nocera (NASDAQ:NCRA) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for TreeHouse Foods and Nocera, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TreeHouse Foods	1	7	0	0	1.88
Nocera	1	0	0	0	1.00

TreeHouse Foods currently has a consensus price target of $23.40, suggesting a potential downside of 4.22%. Given TreeHouse Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe TreeHouse Foods is more favorable than Nocera.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.3% of Nocera shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of TreeHouse Foods shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Nocera shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TreeHouse Foods and Nocera”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TreeHouse Foods	$3.35 billion	0.37	$26.90 million	($4.80)	-5.09
Nocera	$17.01 million	0.32	-$2.35 million	($0.24)	-1.58

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

Profitability

This table compares TreeHouse Foods and Nocera’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	-7.25%	5.52%	2.06%
Nocera	-24.59%	-81.74%	-69.13%

Volatility & Risk

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nocera has a beta of 1.41, meaning that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TreeHouse Foods beats Nocera on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TreeHouse Foods

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. manufactures and distributes private brands snacks and beverages in the United States and internationally. The company provides snacking products, such as crackers, pretzels, in-store bakery items, frozen griddle items, cookies, and candies; and beverage and drink mixes, including non-dairy creamer, coffee, broths/stocks, powdered beverages and other blends, tea, and ready-to-drink-beverages. It also offers groceries comprising pickles, refrigerated dough, hot cereal, and cheese and puddings, as well as natural, organic, and gluten-free products. The company sells its products through various distribution channels, including retailers, foodservice distributors, food-away-from-home customers, refrigerated and frozen formats, and co-manufacturers, as well as industrial and export, which includes food manufacturers and repackagers of foodservice products. TreeHouse Foods, Inc. was founded in 1862 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

About Nocera

Nocera, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and produces recirculating aquaculture systems for fish farms in Taiwan. The company also offers consulting, technology transfer, and aquaculture project management services to new and existing aquaculture management business services. In addition, the company sells signature seafood porridge bowl through its flagship bento box store. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan.