Head-To-Head Review: Marine Harvest ASA (OTCMKTS:MHGVY) versus Campbell’s (NASDAQ:CPB)

Marine Harvest ASA (OTCMKTS:MHGVY) and Campbell’s (NASDAQ:CPB) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

52.4% of Campbell’s shares are held by institutional investors. 19.8% of Campbell’s 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

Marine Harvest ASA has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Campbell’s has a beta of 0.01, indicating that its stock price is 99% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and Campbell’s’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marine Harvest ASA	15.18%	12.23%	5.64%
Campbell’s	5.48%	19.96%	5.21%

Dividends

Marine Harvest ASA pays an annual dividend of $0.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Campbell’s pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Marine Harvest ASA pays out 25.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Campbell’s pays out 85.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and Campbell’s”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marine Harvest ASA	$6.47 billion	1.77	$812.34 million	$1.88	11.58
Campbell’s	$10.25 billion	0.60	$602.00 million	$1.83	11.25

Marine Harvest ASA has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Campbell’s. Campbell’s is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Marine Harvest ASA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Marine Harvest ASA and Campbell’s, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marine Harvest ASA	0	0	0	4	4.00
Campbell’s	7	14	1	0	1.73

Campbell’s has a consensus price target of $25.50, indicating a potential upside of 23.91%. Given Campbell’s’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Campbell’s is more favorable than Marine Harvest ASA.

Summary

Marine Harvest ASA beats Campbell’s on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Marine Harvest ASA

Mowi ASA, a seafood company, farms, produces, and supplies Atlantic salmon products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Feed, Farming, and Sales and Marketing. The company is involved in the salmon feed production, salmon farming and primary processing, and seafood secondary processing activities. It offers whole fish, plain and marinated fillets and steaks, hot- and cold-smoked salmon, burgers and tartars, patties, gravad, sushi, and breaded products under the Ducktrap, MOWI, and Supreme Salmon brands. The company was formerly known as Marine Harvest ASA and changed its name to Mowi ASA in December 2018. Mowi ASA was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Bergen, Norway.

About Campbell’s

The Campbell’s Company, formerly known as Campbell Soup Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Meals & Beverages and Snacks segments. The Meals & Beverages segment engages in the retail and foodservice businesses in the United States and Canada. This segment provides Campbell’s condensed and ready-to-serve soups; Swanson broth and stocks; Pacific Foods broth, soups, and non-dairy beverages; Prego pasta sauces; Pace Mexican sauces; Campbell’s gravies, pasta, beans, and dinner sauces; Swanson canned poultry; V8 juices and beverages; Campbell’s tomato juice; and snacking products in foodservice in Canada. The Snacks segment retails Pepperidge Farm cookies, crackers, fresh bakery, and frozen products, which include Goldfish crackers, Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, Lance sandwich crackers, Cape Cod and Kettle Brand potato chips, Late July snacks, Snack Factory pretzel crisps, Pop Secret popcorn, and other snacking products. This segment is also involved in the retail business in Latin America. It sells its products through retail food chains, mass discounters and merchandisers, club stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and dollar stores, as well as e-commerce and other retail, commercial, and non-commercial establishments, and independent contractor distributors. The company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Camden, New Jersey.