Financial Review: Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP) vs. National Beverage (NASDAQ:FIZZ)

National Beverage (NASDAQ:FIZZ) and Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for National Beverage and Molson Coors Beverage, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Beverage	2	0	0	0	1.00
Molson Coors Beverage	5	10	4	0	1.95

National Beverage currently has a consensus target price of $31.00, indicating a potential downside of 14.25%. Molson Coors Beverage has a consensus target price of $43.12, indicating a potential upside of 4.67%. Given Molson Coors Beverage’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Molson Coors Beverage is more favorable than National Beverage.

Profitability

This table compares National Beverage and Molson Coors Beverage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Beverage	14.81%	32.61%	23.51%
Molson Coors Beverage	-17.83%	9.46%	4.25%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares National Beverage and Molson Coors Beverage”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National Beverage	$1.18 billion	2.87	$183.65 million	$1.86	19.44
Molson Coors Beverage	$13.04 billion	0.66	-$2.14 billion	($11.54)	-3.57

National Beverage has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Molson Coors Beverage. Molson Coors Beverage is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Beverage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

23.9% of National Beverage shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.5% of Molson Coors Beverage shares are owned by institutional investors. 74.7% of National Beverage shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Molson Coors Beverage shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

National Beverage has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Molson Coors Beverage has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

National Beverage beats Molson Coors Beverage on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National Beverage

National Beverage Corp., through its subsidiaries, develops, produces, markets, and sells a portfolio of sparkling waters, juices, energy drinks, and carbonated soft drinks primarily in the United States and Canada. The company's Power+ brand portfolio offers sparkling water products under the LaCroix, LaCroix Cúrate, and LaCroix NiCola; non-carbonated flavored water under the Clear Fruit; energy drink and shots under the Rip It; juice and juice-based products under Everfresh, Everfresh Premier Varietals, and Mr. Pure; and carbonated soft drinks under Shasta and Faygo brands. It serves retailers, as well as various smaller up-and-down-the-street accounts through the take-home, convenience, and food-service distribution channels. National Beverage Corp. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

About Molson Coors Beverage

Molson Coors Beverage Company manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers flavored malt beverages including hard seltzers, craft, spirits and energy, and ready to drink beverages. It provides its products under Aspall Cider, Blue Moon, Coors Original, Five Trail, Hop Valley brands, Leinenkugel’s, Madri, Miller Genuine Draft, Molson Ultra, Sharp’s, Staropramen, and Vizzy Hard Seltzer above premier brands; Bergenbier, Borsodi, Carling, Coors Banquet, Coors Light, Jelen, Kamenitza, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, and Niksicko, Ozujsko under the premium brands; and Branik, Icehouse, Keystone, Miller High Life, Milwaukee’s Best, and Steel Reserve under the economy brands. The company was formerly known as Molson Coors Brewing Company and changed its name to Molson Coors Beverage Company in January 2020. Molson Coors Beverage Company was founded in 1774 and is based in Golden, Colorado.