Reviewing Medifast (NYSE:MED) and Oriental Rise (NASDAQ:ORIS)

Medifast (NYSE:MED) and Oriental Rise (NASDAQ:ORIS) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Medifast and Oriental Rise, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medifast	1	1	0	1	2.33
Oriental Rise	1	0	0	0	1.00

Medifast presently has a consensus target price of $12.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.96%. Given Medifast’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Medifast is more favorable than Oriental Rise.

Volatility and Risk

Medifast has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oriental Rise has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Medifast and Oriental Rise”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medifast	$385.79 million	0.29	-$18.67 million	($1.83)	-5.42
Oriental Rise	$12.22 million	0.04	$680,000.00	N/A	N/A

Oriental Rise has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Medifast.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Medifast shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Medifast and Oriental Rise’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medifast	-5.78%	-4.80%	-3.83%
Oriental Rise	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Medifast beats Oriental Rise on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medifast

Medifast, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of weight loss, weight management, and healthy living products in the United States and the Asia-Pacific. It offers bars, puffs, cereal, crunchers, drinks, hearty choices, oatmeal, pancakes, pudding, soft serve, shakes, smoothies, soft bakes, and soups under the OPTAVIA, OPTAVIA ACTIVE, and Optimal Health brand names. The company markets its products through point-of-sale transactions, as well as through ecommerce platform. Medifast, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

About Oriental Rise

Oriental Rise Holdings Ltd. engages in the cultivation, processing, and sale of tea leaves and tea products. It operates through the Primarily-Processes Teas and Refined Teas segments. The company was founded by Chun Sun Wong, Wai Kwong Fong and Deming Zhou on January 25, 2019 and is headquartered in Ningde, China.