Analyzing Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) & Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ)

Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) and Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Utz Brands and Ingredion, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Utz Brands	2	2	6	0	2.40
Ingredion	0	6	1	0	2.14

Utz Brands currently has a consensus price target of $14.38, indicating a potential upside of 39.64%. Ingredion has a consensus price target of $124.33, indicating a potential upside of 8.19%. Given Utz Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Utz Brands is more favorable than Ingredion.

Dividends

Utz Brands pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Ingredion pays an annual dividend of $3.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Utz Brands pays out 357.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ingredion pays out 32.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Utz Brands has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Ingredion has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Ingredion is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Utz Brands and Ingredion”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Utz Brands	$1.41 billion	1.04	$15.97 million	$0.07	147.06
Ingredion	$7.43 billion	0.98	$647.00 million	$10.03	11.46

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

Profitability

This table compares Utz Brands and Ingredion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Utz Brands	0.39%	8.12%	4.02%
Ingredion	9.07%	18.14%	9.68%

Risk & Volatility

Utz Brands has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingredion has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.0% of Utz Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.3% of Ingredion shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.3% of Utz Brands shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Ingredion shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ingredion beats Utz Brands on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Ingredion

Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from wet milling and processing corn, and other starch-based materials to a range of industries in North America, South America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers starch products for use in a range of processed foods; cornstarch; specialty paper starches for enhanced drainage, fiber retention, oil and grease resistance, improved printability, and biochemical oxygen demand control; starches and specialty starches for textile industry; industrial starches are used in the production of construction materials, textiles, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, as well as in mining and water filtration; and specialty industrial starches for use in biomaterial applications, including biodegradable plastics, fabric softeners and detergents, hair and skin care applications, dusting powders for surgical gloves, and in the production of glass fiber and insulation. It also provides sweetener products comprising glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin, glucose syrup solids, and non-genetically modified organism syrups for applications in food and beverage products, such as baked goods, snack foods, canned fruits, condiments, candy and other sweets, dairy products, ice cream, jams and jellies, prepared mixes, table syrups, and beverages. In addition, the company sells refined corn oil, corn gluten feed, and corn gluten meal; and other products, including fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees, and essences, as well as pulse proteins and hydrocolloids systems and blends. The company was formerly known as Corn Products International, Inc. and changed its name to Ingredion Incorporated in June 2012. Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois.