Head-To-Head Analysis: Kerry Group (OTCMKTS:KRYAY) versus Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR)

Kerry Group (OTCMKTS:KRYAY) and Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Kerry Group has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Kerry Group and Darling Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kerry Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Darling Ingredients	3.54%	5.76%	2.96%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.2% of Kerry Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Darling Ingredients shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kerry Group and Darling Ingredients”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kerry Group	$7.64 billion	1.77	$745.03 million	N/A	N/A
Darling Ingredients	$6.14 billion	1.65	$62.80 million	$0.39	163.64

Kerry Group has higher revenue and earnings than Darling Ingredients.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Kerry Group and Darling Ingredients, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kerry Group	0	1	3	0	2.75
Darling Ingredients	1	0	10	2	3.00

Darling Ingredients has a consensus target price of $67.40, suggesting a potential upside of 5.61%. Given Darling Ingredients’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Darling Ingredients is more favorable than Kerry Group.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats Kerry Group on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kerry Group

Kerry Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides taste and nutrition solutions. The company operates in two segments, Taste & Nutrition, and Dairy Ireland. The Taste & Nutrition segment offers taste and nutrition solutions for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. The Dairy Ireland segment provides value-add dairy ingredients and consumer products, including functional proteins and nutritional bases. It operates in Ireland, rest of Europe, the Americas, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Kerry Group plc was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Tralee, Ireland.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc. develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries. The company also collects and transforms various animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as collagen, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstock, green energy, natural casings, and hides. In addition, it recovers and converts used cooking oil and animal fats, and residual bakery products into valuable feed and fuel ingredients. Further, the company provides environmental services, including grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. It primarily operates under the Rendac, Sonac, FASA, Ecoson, Rousselot, Gelnex, and CTH brand names. The company was formerly known as Darling International Inc. and changed its name to Darling Ingredients Inc. in May 2014. Darling Ingredients Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.