Nomad Foods (NYSE:NOMD) versus Medifast (NYSE:MED) Head-To-Head Review

Nomad Foods (NYSE:NOMD) and Medifast (NYSE:MED) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, profitability and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Nomad Foods has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medifast has a beta of 0.85, suggesting that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Nomad Foods and Medifast, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nomad Foods	1	1	4	0	2.50
Medifast	1	1	0	0	1.50

Nomad Foods currently has a consensus price target of $19.75, indicating a potential upside of 50.82%. Medifast has a consensus price target of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 18.10%. Given Nomad Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nomad Foods is more favorable than Medifast.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nomad Foods and Medifast”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nomad Foods	$3.35 billion	0.60	$245.74 million	$1.46	8.97
Medifast	$602.46 million	0.25	$2.09 million	$0.32	43.66

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.3% of Nomad Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.3% of Nomad Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Medifast shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Nomad Foods and Medifast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nomad Foods	6.93%	10.26%	4.20%
Medifast	0.76%	2.00%	1.50%

Summary

Nomad Foods beats Medifast on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nomad Foods

Nomad Foods Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of frozen food products in the United Kingdom and internationally. The company offers frozen fish products, including fish fingers, coated fish, and natural fish; ready-to-cook vegetable products, such as peas and spinach; and frozen poultry and meat products comprising nuggets, grills, and burgers. It also provides meal products that include ready-to-cook noodles, pasta, lasagna, pancakes, and other ready-made meals; ice creams, such as in-home and out-of-home ice creams; and other products consisting of soups, pizzas, bakery goods, and meat substitutes. The company sells its products to supermarkets and food retail chains primarily under the Birds Eye, Green Cuisine, iglo, Findus, Aunt Bessie's, Goodfella's, Frikom, Ledo, La Cocinera, and Belviva brand names. Nomad Foods Limited was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Feltham, the United Kingdom.

About Medifast

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of weight loss, weight management, and healthy living products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. It offers bars, puffs, cereal, crunchers, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, OPTAVIA ACTIVE, and Optimal Health brand names. The company markets its products through point-of-sale transactions, as well as through ecommerce platform. Medifast, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.