Financial Review: Campbell’s (NASDAQ:CPB) versus US Foods (NYSE:USFD)

Campbell’s (NASDAQ:CPB) and US Foods (NYSE:USFD) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.4% of Campbell’s shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.8% of US Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.8% of Campbell’s shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of US Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Campbell’s and US Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Campbell’s	7	12	2	0	1.76
US Foods	0	2	10	1	2.92

Campbell’s currently has a consensus price target of $27.65, indicating a potential upside of 27.35%. US Foods has a consensus price target of $107.33, indicating a potential upside of 13.38%. Given Campbell’s’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Campbell’s is more favorable than US Foods.

Profitability

This table compares Campbell’s and US Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Campbell’s	5.48%	19.96%	5.21%
US Foods	1.71%	18.74%	6.09%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Campbell’s and US Foods”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Campbell’s	$10.25 billion	0.63	$602.00 million	$1.83	11.86
US Foods	$39.42 billion	0.53	$676.00 million	$2.94	32.20

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

Risk and Volatility

Campbell’s has a beta of -0.02, suggesting that its share price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, US Foods has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

US Foods beats Campbell’s on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Campbell’s

The Campbell’s Company, formerly known as Campbell Soup Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Meals & Beverages and Snacks segments. The Meals & Beverages segment engages in the retail and foodservice businesses in the United States and Canada. This segment provides Campbell’s condensed and ready-to-serve soups; Swanson broth and stocks; Pacific Foods broth, soups, and non-dairy beverages; Prego pasta sauces; Pace Mexican sauces; Campbell’s gravies, pasta, beans, and dinner sauces; Swanson canned poultry; V8 juices and beverages; Campbell’s tomato juice; and snacking products in foodservice in Canada. The Snacks segment retails Pepperidge Farm cookies, crackers, fresh bakery, and frozen products, which include Goldfish crackers, Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, Lance sandwich crackers, Cape Cod and Kettle Brand potato chips, Late July snacks, Snack Factory pretzel crisps, Pop Secret popcorn, and other snacking products. This segment is also involved in the retail business in Latin America. It sells its products through retail food chains, mass discounters and merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and dollar stores, as well as e-commerce and other retail, commercial, and non-commercial establishments, and independent contractor distributors. The company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.

About US Foods

US Foods Holding Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in marketing, sale, and distribution of fresh, frozen, and dry food and non-food products to foodservice customers in the United States. The company's customers include independently owned single and multi-unit restaurants, regional concepts, national restaurant chains, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and motels, country clubs, government and military organizations, colleges and universities, and retail locations. The company was formerly known as USF Holding Corp. and changed its name to US Foods Holding Corp. in February 2016. US Foods Holding Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.