Reviewing Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) and Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Seneca Foods and Archer Daniels Midland, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seneca Foods	0	1	1	0	2.50
Archer Daniels Midland	2	7	2	0	2.00

Archer Daniels Midland has a consensus target price of $81.75, suggesting a potential upside of 6.21%. Given Archer Daniels Midland’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Archer Daniels Midland is more favorable than Seneca Foods.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Seneca Foods and Archer Daniels Midland”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seneca Foods	$1.66 billion	0.65	$114.67 million	$17.31	9.23
Archer Daniels Midland	$80.27 billion	0.46	$1.08 billion	$3.65	21.09

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.5% of Seneca Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.3% of Archer Daniels Midland shares are held by institutional investors. 8.2% of Seneca Foods shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Archer Daniels Midland shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Seneca Foods has a beta of -0.03, suggesting that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Archer Daniels Midland has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Seneca Foods and Archer Daniels Midland’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seneca Foods	6.75%	14.96%	8.56%
Archer Daniels Midland	2.16%	9.21%	3.95%

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 Archer Daniels Midland

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company engages in the procurement, transportation, storage, processing, and merchandising of agricultural commodities, ingredients, flavors, and solutions in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition. The company originates, merchandises, stores, and transports agricultural raw materials, such as oilseeds and soft seeds. It also engages in the agricultural commodity and feed product import, export, and distribution; and various structured trade finance activities. In addition, the company offers soybean meal and oil; vegetable and salad oils and protein meals; ingredients for the food, feed, energy, and industrial customers; margarine, shortening, and other food products; and partially refined oils to produce biodiesel and glycols for use in chemicals, paints, and other industrial products. Further, it provides peanuts, peanut-derived ingredients, and cotton cellulose pulp; sweeteners, corn and wheat starches, syrup, glucose, wheat flour, and dextrose; alcohol, and other food and animal feed ingredients; ethyl alcohol and ethanol; corn gluten feed and meal; distillers' grains; corn germ; and citric acids. Additionally, the company provides proteins, natural flavors, flavor systems, natural colors, emulsifiers, soluble fiber, polyols, hydrocolloids, probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, enzymes, and botanical extracts; and other specialty food and feed ingredients; edible beans; formula feeds, and animal health and nutrition products; and contract and private label pet treats and food products. It also offers futures commission merchant; commodity brokerage services; cash margins and securities pledged to commodity exchange clearinghouse; and cash pledged as security under certain insurance arrangements. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.