Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) and Medifast (NYSE:MED) Financial Review

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Kenvue and Medifast, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kenvue	0	13	0	0	2.00
Medifast	1	1	0	1	2.33

Kenvue presently has a consensus price target of $19.33, suggesting a potential upside of 0.38%. Medifast has a consensus price target of $12.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.99%. Given Kenvue’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Kenvue is more favorable than Medifast.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.6% of Kenvue shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of Kenvue 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 will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Kenvue and Medifast’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kenvue	10.76%	21.22%	8.37%
Medifast	-13.64%	-6.90%	-5.34%

Risk and Volatility

Kenvue has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medifast has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Kenvue pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Medifast pays an annual dividend of $6.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 53.4%. Kenvue pays out 96.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Medifast pays out -178.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kenvue has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Medifast is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Kenvue and Medifast”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kenvue	$15.12 billion	2.45	$1.47 billion	$0.87	22.14
Medifast	$299.57 million	0.46	-$18.67 million	($3.69)	-3.35

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

Summary

Kenvue beats Medifast on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kenvue

Kenvue Inc. operates as a consumer health company worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Self Care, Skin Health and Beauty, and Essential Health. The Self Care segment offers cough, cold and allergy, pain care, digestive health, smoking cessation, eye care, and other products under the Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Nicorette, Zarbee's, ORSLTM, Rhinocort, Calpol, and Zyrtec brands. The Skin Health and Beauty segment provides face and body care, hair, sun, and other care products under the Neutrogena, Aveeno, Dr.Ci:Labo, Le Petit Marseillais, Lubriderm, Rogaine, and OGX brand names. The Essential Health segment offers oral and baby, women's health, wound, and other care products under the Listerine, Johnson's, Band-Aid, and Stayfree, o.b., tampons, Carefree, and Desitin Diaper Rash brands. The company was incorporated in 2022 and is headquartered in Skillman, New Jersey.

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.