Analyzing United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) & Performance Food Group (NYSE:PFGC)

Performance Food Group (NYSE:PFGC) and United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI) are both 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, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Performance Food Group has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Natural Foods has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Performance Food Group and United Natural Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Performance Food Group	0	2	11	0	2.85
United Natural Foods	0	7	2	0	2.22

Performance Food Group currently has a consensus target price of $126.00, suggesting a potential upside of 28.46%. United Natural Foods has a consensus target price of $52.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.41%. Given Performance Food Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Performance Food Group is more favorable than United Natural Foods.

Profitability

This table compares Performance Food Group and United Natural Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Performance Food Group	0.53%	15.15%	3.87%
United Natural Foods	0.27%	10.51%	2.28%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.9% of Performance Food Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.6% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Performance Food Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of United Natural Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Performance Food Group and United Natural Foods”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Performance Food Group	$67.84 billion	0.23	$359.30 million	$2.29	42.83
United Natural Foods	$31.15 billion	0.09	$84.00 million	$1.34	34.22

Performance Food Group has higher revenue and earnings than United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods 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 United Natural Foods on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes natural, organic, specialty, produce, and conventional grocery and non-food products in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Wholesale and Retail. The company offers grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, wellness and personal care items, and bulk and foodservice products. It also provides nuts, dried fruit, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections under the Woodstock Farms Manufacturing name; organic, non-GMO project verified, and specialty food and non-food items under the Blue Marble brand name; pet food under the WILD HARVEST brand name; and various products under the ESSENTIAL EVERYDAY, SHOPPERS VALUE, Field Day, EQUALINE, CULINARY CIRCLE, and STONE RIDGE CREAMERY brand names. In addition, the company provides home, health and beauty care, and pharmacy products, as well as private label products through a network of Cub Foods and Shoppers retail grocery stores; and retail store support, pricing strategy, shelf and planogram management, advertising, couponing, ecommerce, consumer convenience, store design, equipment sourcing, electronic payments processing, network and data hosting, point-of-sale hardware and software, automation tools, sustainability, and administrative back-office solution services. Further, it offers consumer and trade marketing programs, and programs to support suppliers in understanding its markets. The company serves chains, independent retailers, and supernatural chains, as well as foodservice, ecommerce, conventional military business, and other sales customers. United Natural Foods, Inc. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.