Financial Analysis: Nocera (NASDAQ:NCRA) versus Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR)

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

Profitability

This table compares Nocera and Darling Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nocera	-16.25%	-53.87%	-42.50%
Darling Ingredients	1.85%	2.35%	1.05%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Nocera and Darling Ingredients, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nocera	1	0	0	0	1.00
Darling Ingredients	2	3	6	1	2.50

Darling Ingredients has a consensus target price of $43.25, indicating a potential upside of 36.61%. Given Darling Ingredients’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Darling Ingredients is more favorable than Nocera.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.3% of Nocera shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of Nocera shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by company 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nocera and Darling Ingredients”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nocera	$17.01 million	1.33	-$2.35 million	($0.16)	-9.81
Darling Ingredients	$5.72 billion	0.88	$278.88 million	$0.66	47.97

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

Volatility and Risk

Nocera has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats Nocera on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nocera

Nocera, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and produces recirculating aquaculture systems for fish farms in Taiwan. The company also offers consulting, technology transfer, and aquaculture project management services to new and existing aquaculture management business services. In addition, the company sells signature seafood porridge bowl through its flagship bento box store. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

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.