Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ:NHTC – Get Free Report) and Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC – Get Free Report) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Profitability
This table compares Natural Health Trends and Edgewell Personal Care’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Natural Health Trends | -4.51% | -8.00% | -4.58% |
| Edgewell Personal Care | -4.55% | 5.76% | 2.35% |
Volatility and Risk
Natural Health Trends has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Edgewell Personal Care has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Natural Health Trends | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
| Edgewell Personal Care | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2.25 |
Edgewell Personal Care has a consensus target price of $31.83, suggesting a potential upside of 12.16%. Given Edgewell Personal Care’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Edgewell Personal Care is more favorable than Natural Health Trends.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
10.1% of Natural Health Trends shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are held by institutional investors. 12.9% of Natural Health Trends shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
Natural Health Trends pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 22.1%. Edgewell Personal Care pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Natural Health Trends pays out -250.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Edgewell Personal Care pays out -30.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Natural Health Trends is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Natural Health Trends and Edgewell Personal Care”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Natural Health Trends | $39.78 million | 0.39 | -$880,000.00 | ($0.16) | -11.31 |
| Edgewell Personal Care | $2.22 billion | 0.59 | $25.40 million | ($2.00) | -14.19 |
Edgewell Personal Care has higher revenue and earnings than Natural Health Trends. Edgewell Personal Care is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Natural Health Trends, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Edgewell Personal Care beats Natural Health Trends on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Natural Health Trends
Natural Health Trends Corp., a direct-selling and e-commerce company, provides personal care, wellness, and lifestyle products under the NHT Global brand. The company offers wellness products, including liquid, encapsulated, tableted and powder dietary and nutritional supplements, vitamins, and minerals; and herbal products comprising herbal supplements. It also provides beauty products, such as age-defying and hydrating cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, and toners; and lifestyle products, which include weight management and energy enhancing supplements, as well as topical gels. In addition, the company offers home appliances; and daily products, such as oral care, hair care, and body care. It sells its products directly to consumers, as well as through an e-commerce retail platform in the United States, Canada, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Peru, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Europe. The company was formerly known as Florida Institute of Massage Therapy, Inc. and changed its name to Natural Health Trends Corp. in June 1993. Natural Health Trends Corp. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
About Edgewell Personal Care
Edgewell Personal Care Company is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had a portfolio of over 25 brands. It manages its business in four segments: Wet Shave, Sun and Skin Care, Feminine Care and All Other. Its Wet shave products are sold under the Schick, Wilkinson Sword, Edge, Skintimate, Shave Guard and Personna brand names. Its Sun and Skin Care products are sold under the Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Wet Ones and Playtex brand names and offers Wet Ones, portable hand wipes category, and Playtex household gloves, the branded household glove in the United States. Its Feminine Care segment markets its products under the Playtex, Stayfree, Carefree and o.b. brands and markets pads and liners. Its All Other segment includes infant care, pet care and miscellaneous other products.
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