Performance Food Group (NYSE:PFGC) versus Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Financial Review

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) and Performance Food Group (NYSE:PFGC) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Andersons and Performance Food Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Andersons	0	0	4	1	3.20
Performance Food Group	0	2	11	0	2.85

Andersons currently has a consensus target price of $95.00, indicating a potential upside of 44.64%. Performance Food Group has a consensus target price of $126.40, indicating a potential upside of 29.85%. Given Andersons’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Andersons is more favorable than Performance Food Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.1% of Andersons shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.9% of Performance Food Group shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of Andersons shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Performance Food Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Andersons has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Performance Food Group has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Andersons and Performance Food Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Andersons	1.62%	16.23%	5.84%
Performance Food Group	0.53%	15.15%	3.87%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Andersons and Performance Food Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Andersons	$10.94 billion	0.20	$95.71 million	$5.18	12.68
Performance Food Group	$67.84 billion	0.23	$359.30 million	$2.29	42.51

Performance Food Group has higher revenue and earnings than Andersons. Andersons is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Performance Food Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Performance Food Group beats Andersons on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc. operates in trade, renewables, and nutrient and industrial sectors in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Switzerland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Trade, Renewables, and Nutrient & Industrial. The company’s Trade segment operates grain elevators; stores commodities; and provides grain marketing, risk management, and origination services, as well as sells commodities, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, ethanol, and corn oil. This segment also engages in the commodity merchandising business, as well as offers logistics for physical commodities, such as whole grains, grain products, feed ingredients, domestic fuel products, and other agricultural commodities. Its Renewables segment produces, purchases, and sells ethanol, and co-products, as well as offers facility operations, risk management, and marketing services to the ethanol plants it invests in and operates. The company’s Nutrient & Industrial segment manufactures, distributes, and retails agricultural and related plant nutrients, liquid industrial products, corncob-based products, and pelleted lime and gypsum products, as well as turf fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide products; and crop nutrients, crop protection chemicals, and seed products, as well as provides application and agronomic services to commercial and family farmers. In addition, this segment produces corncob-based products for laboratory animal bedding and private-label cat litter, as well as absorbents, blast cleaners, carriers, and polishers; professional lawn care products for golf course and turf care markets; fertilizer and weed, and pest control products; dry and liquid agricultural nutrients, pelleted lime, gypsum, and soil amendments; and micronutrients, as well as industrial products comprising nitrogen reagents, calcium nitrate, deicers, and dust abatement products. The Andersons, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in Maumee, Ohio.

About Performance Food Group

Performance Food Group Company, through its subsidiaries, markets and distributes food and food-related products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Foodservice, Vistar, and Convenience. The company offers a range of frozen foods, groceries, candy, snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and other tobacco products; beef, pork, poultry, and seafood; and health and beauty care products. It also sells disposables, cleaning and kitchen supplies, and related products. In addition, the company offers value-added services, such as product selection and procurement, menu development, and operational strategy. It serves independent and chain restaurants, schools, business and industry locations, hospitals, vending distributors, office coffee service distributors, retailers, convenience stores, theaters, hospitality providers, concessionaires, airport gift shops, college bookstores, corrections facilities, and impulse locations, as well as franchises and other institutional customers. Performance Food Group Company was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.