Critical Review: Marine Harvest ASA (MHGVY) and Its Peers

Marine Harvest ASA (OTCMKTS:MHGVY) is one of 69 publicly-traded companies in the “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Marine Harvest ASA to related companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.9% of shares of all “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies are owned by institutional investors. 15.0% of shares of all “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Marine Harvest ASA and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marine Harvest ASA	0	3	0	1	2.50
Marine Harvest ASA Competitors	710	3417	3726	153	2.41

As a group, “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies have a potential upside of 18.67%. Given Marine Harvest ASA’s peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Marine Harvest ASA has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Dividends

Marine Harvest ASA pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Marine Harvest ASA pays out 73.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “FOOD – MISC/DIVERSIFIED” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.0% and pay out 33.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marine Harvest ASA	5.77%	14.65%	6.94%
Marine Harvest ASA Competitors	-3.76%	-16.96%	1.87%

Risk and Volatility

Marine Harvest ASA has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marine Harvest ASA’s peers have a beta of 0.83, suggesting that their average stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Marine Harvest ASA and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marine Harvest ASA	$6.06 billion	$506.96 million	28.53
Marine Harvest ASA Competitors	$8.11 billion	$399.01 million	24.57

Marine Harvest ASA’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Marine Harvest ASA. Marine Harvest ASA is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Marine Harvest ASA beats its peers on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Marine Harvest ASA

Mowi ASA, a seafood company, farms, produces, and supplies Atlantic salmon products worldwide. It operates through three segments: Feed, Farming, and Sales and Marketing. The company is involved in the salmon feed production, salmon farming and primary processing, and seafood secondary processing activities. It offers whole fish, plain and marinated fillets and steaks, hot- and cold-smoked salmon, burgers and tartars, patties, gravad, sushi, and breaded products under the Ducktrap, MOWI, and Supreme Salmon brands. The company was formerly known as Marine Harvest ASA and changed its name to Mowi ASA in December 2018. Mowi ASA was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Bergen, Norway.