Head-To-Head Survey: Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ:NHTC) vs. Nature’s Sunshine Products (NASDAQ:NATR)

Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ:NHTC) and Nature’s Sunshine Products (NASDAQ:NATR) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

10.1% of Natural Health Trends shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of Nature’s Sunshine Products shares are held by institutional investors. 12.9% of Natural Health Trends shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Nature’s Sunshine Products shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Natural Health Trends and Nature’s Sunshine Products’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Natural Health Trends	-4.51%	-8.00%	-4.58%
Nature’s Sunshine Products	3.68%	12.88%	8.17%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Natural Health Trends and Nature’s Sunshine Products, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Natural Health Trends	1	0	0	0	1.00
Nature’s Sunshine Products	0	1	2	0	2.67

Nature’s Sunshine Products has a consensus target price of $30.50, indicating a potential upside of 105.86%. Given Nature’s Sunshine Products’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nature’s Sunshine Products is more favorable than Natural Health Trends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Natural Health Trends and Nature’s Sunshine Products”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Natural Health Trends	$39.78 million	0.40	-$880,000.00	($0.16)	-11.66
Nature’s Sunshine Products	$492.02 million	0.53	$19.52 million	$1.01	14.67

Nature’s Sunshine Products has higher revenue and earnings than Natural Health Trends. Natural Health Trends is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nature’s Sunshine Products, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Natural Health Trends pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 21.4%. Nature’s Sunshine Products pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Natural Health Trends pays out -250.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nature’s Sunshine Products pays out 39.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Natural Health Trends is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Natural Health Trends has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nature’s Sunshine Products has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Nature’s Sunshine Products beats Natural Health Trends on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Natural Health Trends

Natural Health Trends Corp., a direct-selling and e-commerce company, provides personal care, wellness, and lifestyle products under the NHT Global brand. The company offers wellness products, including liquid, encapsulated, tableted and powder dietary and nutritional supplements, vitamins, and minerals; and herbal products comprising herbal supplements. It also provides beauty products, such as age-defying and hydrating cleansers, creams, lotions, serums, and toners; and lifestyle products, which include weight management and energy enhancing supplements, as well as topical gels. In addition, the company offers home appliances; and daily products, such as oral care, hair care, and body care. It sells its products directly to consumers, as well as through an e-commerce retail platform in the United States, Canada, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Peru, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Europe. The company was formerly known as Florida Institute of Massage Therapy, Inc. and changed its name to Natural Health Trends Corp. in June 1993. Natural Health Trends Corp. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

About Nature’s Sunshine Products

Nature’s Sunshine Products, Inc., a natural health and wellness company, manufactures and sells nutritional and personal care products in Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and internationally. It offers general health products related to blood sugar support, bone health, cellular health, cognitive function, joint health, mood, sexual health, sleep, sports and energy, and vision. The company also provides immunity, cardiovascular, and digestive products; and personal care products, such as oils and lotions, aloe vera gels, herbal shampoos, herbal skin treatment, toothpaste, and skin cleansers, as well as weight management products. It offers its products under the Nature’s Sunshine and Synergy WorldWide brands through a sales force of independent consultants. Nature’s Sunshine Products, Inc. was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah.