Analyzing United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) and Tate & Lyle (OTCMKTS:TATYY)

Tate & Lyle (OTCMKTS:TATYY) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Tate & Lyle and United Natural Foods, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tate & Lyle	1	4	0	1	2.17
United Natural Foods	1	6	3	1	2.36

United Natural Foods has a consensus price target of $38.78, indicating a potential upside of 4.05%. Given United Natural Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe United Natural Foods is more favorable than Tate & Lyle.

Volatility & Risk

Tate & Lyle has a beta of 0.28, suggesting that its stock price is 72% less 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.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Tate & Lyle shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of United Natural Foods shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Tate & Lyle and United Natural Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tate & Lyle	N/A	N/A	N/A
United Natural Foods	-0.32%	4.35%	0.90%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Tate & Lyle and United Natural Foods”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tate & Lyle	$2.21 billion	1.06	$182.45 million	N/A	N/A
United Natural Foods	$31.78 billion	0.07	-$118.00 million	($1.66)	-22.45

Tate & Lyle has higher earnings, but lower revenue than United Natural Foods.

Summary

United Natural Foods beats Tate & Lyle on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tate & Lyle

Tate & Lyle PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage, and other industries in the United States, the United Kingdom, other European countries, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Food & Beverage Solutions, Sucralose, and Primary Products. The company offers dairy products, soups, sauces, and dressings; bakery products and snacks; texturants; nutritive sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup and dextrose; fibres; and stabilizers and functional systems. It also provides industrial starches; acidulants, such as citric acid; and commodities comprising corn gluten feed, meal, and corn oil. The company was incorporated in 1903 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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.