Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) vs. Bridgford Foods (NASDAQ:BRID) Financial Survey

Bridgford Foods (NASDAQ:BRID) and Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Bridgford Foods has a beta of -0.2, meaning that its stock price is 120% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingredion has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Bridgford Foods and Ingredion”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bridgford Foods	$230.99 million	0.29	-$13.36 million	($1.55)	-4.70
Ingredion	$7.22 billion	0.87	$729.00 million	$10.38	9.64

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

Profitability

This table compares Bridgford Foods and Ingredion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridgford Foods	-6.07%	-12.27%	-9.60%
Ingredion	9.36%	15.86%	8.66%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

4.7% of Bridgford Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.3% of Ingredion shares are owned by institutional investors. 80.7% of Bridgford Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Ingredion shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Bridgford Foods and Ingredion, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridgford Foods	1	0	0	0	1.00
Ingredion	1	6	2	0	2.11

Ingredion has a consensus price target of $122.43, indicating a potential upside of 22.30%. Given Ingredion’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ingredion is more favorable than Bridgford Foods.

Summary

Ingredion beats Bridgford Foods on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bridgford Foods

Bridgford Foods Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes frozen and snack food products in the United States. It operates in two segments, Frozen Food Products and Snack Food Products. The company offers biscuits, bread dough items, roll dough items, and dry sausage and beef jerky products, as well as ready to eat sandwiches and non-refrigerated snack food products. It provides frozen food products to food service and retail customers through wholesalers, cooperatives, and distributors; and snack food items to supermarkets, mass merchandise, and convenience retail stores through customer-owned distribution centers, as well as a direct store delivery network. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Bridgford Foods Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Bridgford Industries Incorporated.

About Ingredion

Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from wet milling and processing corn, and other starch-based materials to a range of industries in North America, South America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers starch products for use in a range of processed foods; cornstarch; specialty paper starches for enhanced drainage, fiber retention, oil and grease resistance, improved printability, and biochemical oxygen demand control; starches and specialty starches for textile industry; industrial starches are used in the production of construction materials, textiles, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, as well as in mining and water filtration; and specialty industrial starches for use in biomaterial applications, including biodegradable plastics, fabric softeners and detergents, hair and skin care applications, dusting powders for surgical gloves, and in the production of glass fiber and insulation. It also provides sweetener products comprising glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin, glucose syrup solids, and non-genetically modified organism syrups for applications in food and beverage products, such as baked goods, snack foods, canned fruits, condiments, candy and other sweets, dairy products, ice cream, jams and jellies, prepared mixes, table syrups, and beverages. In addition, the company sells refined corn oil, corn gluten feed, and corn gluten meal; and other products, including fruit and vegetable products, such as concentrates, purees, and essences, as well as pulse proteins and hydrocolloids systems and blends. The company was formerly known as Corn Products International, Inc. and changed its name to Ingredion Incorporated in June 2012. Ingredion Incorporated was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois.