Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) versus John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) Critical Survey

Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) and John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Conagra Brands has a beta of 0.08, suggesting that its stock price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a beta of 0.35, suggesting that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Conagra Brands and John B. Sanfilippo & Son, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Conagra Brands	2	9	1	1	2.08
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	0	0	0	0	0.00

Conagra Brands presently has a consensus target price of $22.5833, indicating a potential upside of 17.87%. Given Conagra Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Conagra Brands is more favorable than John B. Sanfilippo & Son.

Profitability

This table compares Conagra Brands and John B. Sanfilippo & Son’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Conagra Brands	9.92%	12.52%	5.25%
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	5.00%	16.98%	10.22%

Dividends

Conagra Brands pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. John B. Sanfilippo & Son pays an annual dividend of $0.85 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Conagra Brands pays out 58.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. John B. Sanfilippo & Son pays out 17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Conagra Brands has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and John B. Sanfilippo & Son has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Conagra Brands and John B. Sanfilippo & Son”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Conagra Brands	$11.61 billion	0.79	$1.15 billion	$2.39	8.02
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	$1.07 billion	0.69	$60.25 million	$4.74	13.18

Conagra Brands has higher revenue and earnings than John B. Sanfilippo & Son. Conagra Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than John B. Sanfilippo & Son, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.8% of Conagra Brands shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Conagra Brands shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.4% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held 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

Conagra Brands beats John B. Sanfilippo & Son on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer packaged goods food company primarily in the United States. The company operates through Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, and Foodservice segments. The Grocery & Snacks segment primarily offers shelf stable food products through various retail channels. The Refrigerated & Frozen segment provides temperature-controlled food products through various retail channels. The International segment offers food products in various temperature states through retail and foodservice channels outside of the United States. The Foodservice segment offers branded and customized food products, including meals, entrees, sauces, and various custom-manufactured culinary products packaged for restaurants and other foodservice establishments. The company sells its products under the Birds Eye, Marie Callender's, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, Angie's, BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera brands. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About John B. Sanfilippo & Son

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. engages in the processing and distribution of nuts and nut-related products. It offers peanuts, pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and other nuts under the brands of Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, Squirrel Brand, and Southern Style Nuts. The company was founded by Gaspare Sanfilippo and John B. Sanfilippo in 1922 and is headquartered in Elgin, IL.