Analyzing Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) & General Mills (NYSE:GIS)

Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) and General Mills (NYSE:GIS) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.5% of Seneca Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.7% of General Mills shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.4% of Seneca Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of General Mills shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Seneca Foods has a beta of 0.1, meaning that its stock price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, General Mills has a beta of -0.07, meaning that its stock price is 107% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Seneca Foods and General Mills, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seneca Foods	0	0	1	0	3.00
General Mills	2	13	4	0	2.11

General Mills has a consensus price target of $55.18, indicating a potential upside of 18.16%. Given General Mills’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe General Mills is more favorable than Seneca Foods.

Profitability

This table compares Seneca Foods and General Mills’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seneca Foods	3.73%	9.68%	5.03%
General Mills	15.24%	23.46%	6.69%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Seneca Foods and General Mills”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seneca Foods	$1.58 billion	0.48	$41.22 million	$8.62	12.86
General Mills	$19.49 billion	1.28	$2.30 billion	$5.29	8.83

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

Summary

General Mills beats Seneca Foods on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seneca Foods

Seneca Foods Corporation provides packaged fruits and vegetables in the United States and internationally. The company offers canned, frozen, and jarred produce; jarred fruit; and snack chips and other food products under the private label, as well as under various national and regional brands that the company owns or licenses, including Seneca, Libby’s, Aunt Nellie’s, Cherryman, Green Valley, and READ. In addition, it packs canned and frozen vegetables under contract packing agreements. Further, the company engages in the sale of cans, ends, and seeds, as well as trucking and aircraft operations. It provides its products to grocery outlets, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, limited assortment stores, club stores, and dollar stores; specialty retailers; and food service distributors, restaurant chains, industrial markets, other food packagers, and export customers in approximately 55 countries, as well as federal, state, and local governments for school and other feeding programs. Seneca Foods Corporation was incorporated in 1949 and is headquartered in Fairport, New York.

About General Mills

General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. The company also manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food; and operates ice cream parlors. It markets its products under the Annie’s, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Dunkaroos, Edgard & Cooper, Fiber One, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto’s, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Häagen-Dazs, Kitano, Kix, Lärabar, Latina, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Nudges, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Progresso, Tastefuls, Total, Totino’s , Trix, True Chews, True Solutions, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, and Yoki brands. The company sells its products to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.