Head to Head Review: Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) vs. J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF)

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) and Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and Darling Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
J & J Snack Foods	3.23%	8.93%	6.07%
Darling Ingredients	9.13%	12.98%	6.08%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for J & J Snack Foods and Darling Ingredients, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
J & J Snack Foods	2	0	2	0	2.00
Darling Ingredients	0	3	10	0	2.77

J & J Snack Foods presently has a consensus price target of $110.50, suggesting a potential upside of 42.56%. Darling Ingredients has a consensus price target of $69.91, suggesting a potential upside of 14.08%. Given J & J Snack Foods’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe J & J Snack Foods is more favorable than Darling Ingredients.

Risk and Volatility

J & J Snack Foods has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and Darling Ingredients”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
J & J Snack Foods	$1.52 billion	0.95	$65.60 million	$2.60	29.81
Darling Ingredients	$6.14 billion	1.58	$62.80 million	$3.71	16.52

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.0% of J & J Snack Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.4% of J & J Snack Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats J & J Snack Foods on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About J & J Snack Foods

J&J Snack Foods Corp. engages in the manufacturing of nutritional snack foods and distribution of frozen beverages to the food service and retail supermarket industries. It operates through the following segments: Food Service, Retail Supermarkets, and Frozen Beverages. The Food Service segment includes soft pretzels, frozen novelties, churros, handheld products, and baked goods. The Retail Supermarkets segment offers soft pretzel products including Superpretzel, frozen juice treats and desserts, including Luigi’s real Italian ice, Minute Maid juice bars and soft frozen lemonade, Whole Fruit frozen fruit bars and sorbet, Philly Swirl cups and sticks, ICEE Squeeze-Up Tubes and dough enrobed handheld products including Patio burritos. The Frozen Beverages segment provides frozen beverages to the food service industry primarily under the names ICEE, SLUSH PUPPIE, and PARROT ICE in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as repair and maintenance services. The company was founded by Gerald B. Shreiber in 1971 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, NJ.

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.