Reviewing Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) & Above Food Ingredients (NASDAQ:ABVE)

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) and Above Food Ingredients (NASDAQ:ABVE) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Flowers Foods and Above Food Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flowers Foods	1.38%	15.98%	5.11%
Above Food Ingredients	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Flowers Foods and Above Food Ingredients, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flowers Foods	2	5	0	0	1.71
Above Food Ingredients	0	0	0	0	0.00

Flowers Foods currently has a consensus price target of $9.60, indicating a potential upside of 26.82%. Given Flowers Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Flowers Foods is more favorable than Above Food Ingredients.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.5% of Flowers Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.8% of Above Food Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Flowers Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 64.5% of Above Food Ingredients shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Flowers Foods and Above Food Ingredients”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flowers Foods	$5.26 billion	0.31	$83.82 million	$0.35	21.63
Above Food Ingredients	$294.84 million	0.02	-$39.49 million	N/A	N/A

Flowers Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Above Food Ingredients.

Risk and Volatility

Flowers Foods has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Above Food Ingredients has a beta of -0.24, indicating that its share price is 124% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Flowers Foods beats Above Food Ingredients on 10 of the 11 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 Above Food Ingredients

Above Food Ingredients Inc., a regenerative ingredient company, produces vertically integrated supply chain products in Canada, the United States, Mexico, China, France, Turkey, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Disruptive Agriculture and Rudimentary Ingredients, and Consumer Packaged Goods. The Disruptive Agriculture and Rudimentary Ingredients segment engages in the provisioning of discrete genetics, origination, purchasing, grading, processing, and sale of regeneratively grown grain; and origination, purchase, and sale of bespoke ingredients products. The Consumer Packaged Goods segment formulates, manufactures, sells, distributes, and markets proprietary consumer product formulations in owned brands; and focuses on manufacturing and distribution for private-labeled retail owned brands. Above Food Ingredients Inc. is based in Regina, Canada.