Analyzing Spectrum Brands (NYSE:SPB) and Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD)

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) and Spectrum Brands (NYSE:SPB) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Church & Dwight and Spectrum Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Church & Dwight	11.96%	20.10%	9.31%
Spectrum Brands	2.76%	10.06%	5.49%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.6% of Church & Dwight shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Church & Dwight shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Spectrum Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Church & Dwight and Spectrum Brands, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Church & Dwight	1	8	9	0	2.44
Spectrum Brands	0	4	3	0	2.43

Church & Dwight presently has a consensus target price of $104.41, indicating a potential upside of 8.55%. Spectrum Brands has a consensus target price of $98.83, indicating a potential upside of 12.31%. Given Spectrum Brands’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Spectrum Brands is more favorable than Church & Dwight.

Risk and Volatility

Church & Dwight has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spectrum Brands has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Church & Dwight and Spectrum Brands”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Church & Dwight	$6.20 billion	3.68	$736.80 million	$3.11	30.93
Spectrum Brands	$2.81 billion	0.72	$99.70 million	$3.28	26.83

Church & Dwight has higher revenue and earnings than Spectrum Brands. Spectrum Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Church & Dwight, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Church & Dwight pays an annual dividend of $1.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Spectrum Brands pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Church & Dwight pays out 39.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Spectrum Brands pays out 57.3% 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. Church & Dwight has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years and Spectrum Brands has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

Church & Dwight beats Spectrum Brands on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Church & Dwight

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements. The Consumer International segment is involved in the personal care, household and over-the-counter products in international subsidiary markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, China, and the United Kingdom. The SPD segment consists of sales to businesses and participates in three product areas namely, animal nutrition, specialty chemicals, and commercial and professional. The Corporate segment includes equity in earnings of affiliates. The company was founded by Dwight John and Austin Church in 1846 and is headquartered in Ewing, NJ.

About Spectrum Brands

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. operates as a branded consumer products and home essentials company in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions. It operates through three segments: Home and Personal Care; Global Pet Care; and Home and Garden. The Home and Personal Care segment provides home appliances under the Black & Decker, Russell Hobbs, George Foreman, PowerXL, Emeril Legasse, Copper Chef, Toastmaster, Juiceman, Farberware, and Breadman brands; and personal care products under the Remington brand. The Global Pet Care segment provides dog and cat chews, treats, wet and dry foods, dog and cat clean-up and food, training, health and grooming, indoor birds, and small animal food and care products under the Good'n'Fun, DreamBone, GOOD BOY, SmartBones, IAMS, EUKANUBA, Nature's Miracle, FURminator, Dingo, 8IN1, Meowee!, and Wild Harvest brands. This segment also offers aquarium kits, stand-alone tanks, and aquatics equipment and consumables under the Tetra, Marineland, Instant Ocean, GloFish, and OmegaSea brands. The Home and Garden segment provides outdoor insect and weed control solutions, and animal repellents under the Spectracide, Garden Safe, Liquid Fence, and EcoLogic brands; household pest control solutions under the Hot Shot, Black Flag, Real-Kill, Ultra Kill, The Ant Trap, and Rid-A-Bug brand names; household surface cleaning, maintenance, and restoration products, including bottled liquids, mops, wipes, and markers under the Rejuvenate brand name; and personal-use pesticides and insect repellent products under the Cutter and Repel brands. The company sells its products through retailers, e-commerce and online retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin.