Kerry Group (OTCMKTS:KRYAY) and Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Critical Contrast

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) and Kerry Group (OTCMKTS:KRYAY) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Flowers Foods and Kerry Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flowers Foods	1	3	0	0	1.75
Kerry Group	0	1	2	0	2.67

Flowers Foods presently has a consensus target price of $13.67, suggesting a potential upside of 24.87%. Given Flowers Foods’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Flowers Foods is more favorable than Kerry Group.

Risk & Volatility

Flowers Foods has a beta of 0.33, suggesting that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kerry Group has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

75.5% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of Kerry Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.6% of Flowers Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Flowers Foods pays an annual dividend of $0.99 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.0%. Kerry Group pays an annual dividend of $0.69 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Flowers Foods pays out 107.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Flowers Foods has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years. Flowers Foods is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Flowers Foods and Kerry Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flowers Foods	3.78%	16.35%	5.65%
Kerry Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Flowers Foods and Kerry Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flowers Foods	$5.10 billion	0.45	$248.12 million	$0.92	11.90
Kerry Group	$7.50 billion	1.92	$728.69 million	N/A	N/A

Kerry Group has higher revenue and earnings than Flowers Foods.

Summary

Flowers Foods beats Kerry Group on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc. produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs. Freshley's, and Tastykake brand names. The company distributes its products through a direct-store-delivery distribution and a warehouse delivery system, as well as operates bakeries. Its customers include national and regional restaurants, institutions and foodservice distributors, and retail in-store bakeries; wholesale distributors; mass merchandisers, supermarkets, vending outlets, and convenience stores; quick-serve chains, food wholesalers, institutions, dollar stores, and vending companies; and public health care, military commissaries, and prisons, and other governmental institutions. The company was formerly known as Flowers Industries and changed its name to Flowers Foods, Inc. in 2001. Flowers Foods, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia.

About Kerry Group

Kerry Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides taste and nutrition solutions. The company operates in two segments, Taste & Nutrition, and Dairy Ireland. The Taste & Nutrition segment offers taste and nutrition solutions for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. The Dairy Ireland segment provides value-add dairy ingredients and consumer products, including functional proteins and nutritional bases. It operates in Ireland, rest of Europe, the Americas, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Kerry Group plc was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Tralee, Ireland.