Head to Head Analysis: Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) & Ingles Markets (NASDAQ:IMKTA)

Ingles Markets (NASDAQ:IMKTA) and Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

62.5% of Ingles Markets shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.1% of Maplebear shares are held by institutional investors. 22.8% of Ingles Markets shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 24.0% of Maplebear shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Ingles Markets has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Maplebear has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Ingles Markets and Maplebear, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ingles Markets	0	0	1	0	3.00
Maplebear	0	6	14	0	2.70

Maplebear has a consensus target price of $58.24, suggesting a potential upside of 16.68%. Given Maplebear’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Maplebear is more favorable than Ingles Markets.

Profitability

This table compares Ingles Markets and Maplebear’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ingles Markets	1.92%	6.30%	4.01%
Maplebear	11.97%	20.19%	14.13%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ingles Markets and Maplebear”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ingles Markets	$5.33 billion	0.30	$83.59 million	$5.47	15.52
Maplebear	$3.74 billion	3.09	$447.00 million	$1.83	27.27

Maplebear has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ingles Markets. Ingles Markets is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Maplebear, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Maplebear beats Ingles Markets on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ingles Markets

Ingles Markets, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, operates a chain of supermarkets in the southeast United States. It offers food products, including grocery, meat and dairy products, produce, frozen foods, and other perishables; and non-food products, which include fuel centers, pharmacies, health and beauty care products, and general merchandise, as well as private label items. The company owns and operates a milk processing and packaging plant that supplies organic milk, fruit juices, and bottled water products to other retailers, food service distributors, and grocery warehouses. In addition, it provides home meal replacement items, delicatessens, bakeries, floral departments, and greeting cards, as well as broad selections of local organic, beverage, and health-related items. The company operates under the Ingles and Sav-Mor brand names. Ingles Markets, Incorporated was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.

About Maplebear

Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, engages in the provision of online grocery shopping services to households in North America. It sells and delivers grocery products, as well as pickup services through a mobile application and website. It also operates virtual convenience stores; and provides software-as-a-service solutions to retailers. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.