Hormel Foods (HRL) Competitors

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) and Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and media sentiment.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, HSY or HRL?

Hershey has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Hormel Foods. Hershey is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hormel Foods, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hershey	$11.43B	3.50	$1.86B	$10.09	19.61
Hormel Foods	$12.11B	1.40	$793.57M	$1.40	22.13

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HSY or HRL?

Hershey received 156 more outperform votes than Hormel Foods when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 57.51% of users gave Hormel Foods an outperform vote while only 53.22% of users gave Hershey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hershey	Outperform Votes 604 53.22%	Underperform Votes 531 46.78%
Hormel Foods	Outperform Votes 448 57.51%	Underperform Votes 331 42.49%

Does the media refer more to HSY or HRL?

In the previous week, Hormel Foods had 9 more articles in the media than Hershey. MarketBeat recorded 31 mentions for Hormel Foods and 22 mentions for Hershey. Hershey's average media sentiment score of 0.66 beat Hormel Foods' score of 0.39 indicating that Hormel Foods is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hershey	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Hormel Foods	7 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is HSY or HRL a better dividend stock?

Hershey pays an annual dividend of $5.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Hormel Foods pays an annual dividend of $1.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Hershey pays out 54.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hormel Foods pays out 80.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Hershey has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and Hormel Foods has raised its dividend for 59 consecutive years. Hormel Foods is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, HSY or HRL?

Hershey has a beta of 0.33, indicating that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.28, indicating that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HSY or HRL?

58.0% of Hershey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.0% of Hormel Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Hershey shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Hormel Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is HSY or HRL more profitable?

Hershey has a net margin of 18.13% compared to Hershey's net margin of 6.37%. Hormel Foods' return on equity of 50.15% beat Hershey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hershey	18.13%	50.15%	16.67%
Hormel Foods	6.37%	11.12%	6.47%

Do analysts rate HSY or HRL?

Hershey presently has a consensus price target of $210.56, indicating a potential upside of 6.43%. Hormel Foods has a consensus price target of $31.67, indicating a potential upside of 2.22%. Given Hormel Foods' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Hershey is more favorable than Hormel Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hershey	1 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.17
Hormel Foods	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Summary

Hershey beats Hormel Foods on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.