Head to Head Review: Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) vs. Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM)

Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM) and Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

81.1% of Boston Beer shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.0% of Celsius shares are held by institutional investors. 27.4% of Boston Beer shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Celsius shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Boston Beer and Celsius”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Boston Beer	$1.93 billion	0.98	$108.47 million	($6.79)	-26.78
Celsius	$2.52 billion	2.85	$108.00 million	$0.24	117.96

Boston Beer has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Celsius. Boston Beer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Celsius, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Boston Beer and Celsius’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Boston Beer	-3.42%	9.99%	6.48%
Celsius	4.24%	36.52%	8.53%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Boston Beer and Celsius, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Boston Beer	2	9	1	0	1.92
Celsius	1	6	14	0	2.62

Boston Beer currently has a consensus target price of $205.09, suggesting a potential upside of 12.81%. Celsius has a consensus target price of $41.76, suggesting a potential upside of 47.53%. Given Celsius’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Celsius is more favorable than Boston Beer.

Volatility & Risk

Boston Beer has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Celsius has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Celsius beats Boston Beer on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Boston Beer

The Boston Beer Company, Inc produces and sells alcohol beverages primarily in the United States. The company's flagship beer is Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It offers various beers, hard ciders, flavored malt beverages, and hard seltzers under the Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea, Truly, Angry Orchard, Dogfish Head, Angel City, and Coney Island brand names. The company markets and sells its products to a network wholesaler in the United States, as well as wholesalers, importers, or other agencies that in turn sell to retailers, such as grocery stores, club stores, convenience stores, liquor stores, bars, restaurants, stadiums, and other e-commerce retail outlets. It sells its products in Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim, Mexico, and Central and South America. The Boston Beer Company, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

About Celsius

Celsius Holdings, Inc. develops, processes, markets, distributes, and sells functional energy drinks and liquid supplements in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canadian, European, Middle Eastern, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company offers CELSIUS, a fitness drink or supplement designed to accelerate metabolism and burn body fat; various flavors and carbonated and non-carbonated functional energy drinks under the CELSIUS Originals and Vibe name, as well as functional energy drink under the CELSIUS Essentials and CELSIUS On-the-Go Powder names; and CELSIUS ready-to drink products. It distributes its products through direct-to-store delivery, distributors, supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores, nutritional stores, and mass merchants, as well as health clubs, gyms, the military, and e-commerce websites. The company was formerly known as Vector Ventures, Inc. and changed its name to Celsius Holdings, Inc. in January 2007. Celsius Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.