Medifast (NYSE:MED) & Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) Head-To-Head Review

Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) and Medifast (NYSE:MED) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Medifast shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Kimberly-Clark and Medifast, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kimberly-Clark	1	11	4	1	2.29
Medifast	1	2	0	0	1.67

Kimberly-Clark currently has a consensus target price of $117.36, indicating a potential upside of 19.23%. Medifast has a consensus target price of $12.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.08%. Given Kimberly-Clark’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Kimberly-Clark is more favorable than Medifast.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Kimberly-Clark and Medifast”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kimberly-Clark	$16.45 billion	1.99	$2.02 billion	$5.88	16.74
Medifast	$385.79 million	0.36	-$18.67 million	($2.33)	-5.26

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

Volatility and Risk

Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.25, suggesting that its share price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medifast has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Kimberly-Clark and Medifast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kimberly-Clark	11.79%	143.92%	14.21%
Medifast	-8.08%	-6.69%	-5.25%

Summary

Kimberly-Clark beats Medifast on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets personal care and consumer tissue products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional. The company’s Personal Care segment offers disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, reusable underwear, and other related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Thinx, Poise, Depend, Plenitud, Softex, and other brand names. Its Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Viva, Andrex, Scottex, Neve, and other brand names. The company’s K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, personal protective equipment, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and KleenGuard brands. It also sells household use products directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores, and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce; and away-from-home use products directly to distributors, manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service, and public facilities, as well as through e-commerce. Kimberly-Clark Corporation was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About Medifast

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of weight loss, weight management, and healthy living products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. It offers bars, puffs, cereal, crunchers, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, OPTAVIA ACTIVE, and Optimal Health brand names. The company markets its products through point-of-sale transactions, as well as through ecommerce platform. Medifast, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.