Comparing Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI)

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Darling Ingredients and United Natural Foods, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Darling Ingredients	1	2	7	1	2.73
United Natural Foods	1	6	3	1	2.36

Darling Ingredients presently has a consensus price target of $45.63, suggesting a potential upside of 3.52%. United Natural Foods has a consensus price target of $38.78, suggesting a potential upside of 3.55%. Given United Natural Foods’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe United Natural Foods is more favorable than Darling Ingredients.

Risk and Volatility

Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Darling Ingredients and United Natural Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Darling Ingredients	1.84%	2.39%	1.08%
United Natural Foods	-0.32%	4.35%	0.90%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Darling Ingredients and United Natural Foods”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Darling Ingredients	$5.72 billion	1.22	$278.88 million	$0.67	65.78
United Natural Foods	$31.78 billion	0.07	-$118.00 million	($1.66)	-22.56

Darling Ingredients has higher earnings, but lower revenue than United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Darling Ingredients, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats United Natural Foods on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc. develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries. The company also collects and transforms various animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as collagen, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstock, green energy, natural casings, and hides. In addition, it recovers and converts used cooking oil and animal fats, and residual bakery products into valuable feed and fuel ingredients. Further, the company provides environmental services, including grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. It primarily operates under the Rendac, Sonac, FASA, Ecoson, Rousselot, Gelnex, and CTH brand names. The company was formerly known as Darling International Inc. and changed its name to Darling Ingredients Inc. in May 2014. Darling Ingredients Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Wholesale and Retail. The company offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, wellness and personal care items, and bulk and foodservice products. It also provides nuts, dried fruit, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections under the Woodstock Farms Manufacturing name; organic, non-GMO project verified, and specialty food and non-food items under the Blue Marble brand name; pet food under the WILD HARVEST brand name; and various products under the ESSENTIAL EVERYDAY, SHOPPERS VALUE, Field Day, EQUALINE, CULINARY CIRCLE, and STONE RIDGE CREAMERY brand names. In addition, the company provides home, health and beauty care, and pharmacy products, as well as private label products through a network of Cub Foods and Shoppers retail grocery stores; and retail store support, pricing strategy, shelf and planogram management, advertising, couponing, ecommerce, consumer convenience, store design, equipment sourcing, electronic payments processing, network and data hosting, point-of-sale hardware and software, automation tools, sustainability, and administrative back-office solution services. Further, it offers consumer and trade marketing programs, and programs to support suppliers in understanding its markets. The company serves chains, independent retailers, and supernatural chains, as well as foodservice, ecommerce, conventional military business, and other sales customers. United Natural Foods, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.