Reviewing J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) & Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL)

J & J Snack Foods (NASDAQ:JJSF) and Simply Good Foods (NASDAQ:SMPL) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and Simply Good Foods”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
J & J Snack Foods	$1.58 billion	0.93	$65.60 million	$2.60	30.18
Simply Good Foods	$1.39 billion	0.68	$103.61 million	($2.17)	-4.94

Simply Good Foods has lower revenue, but higher earnings than J & J Snack Foods. Simply Good Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than J & J Snack Foods, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

J & J Snack Foods has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Simply Good Foods has a beta of 0.19, suggesting that its stock price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for J & J Snack Foods and Simply Good Foods, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
J & J Snack Foods	1	1	2	0	2.25
Simply Good Foods	1	9	3	0	2.15

J & J Snack Foods currently has a consensus price target of $110.50, indicating a potential upside of 40.82%. Simply Good Foods has a consensus price target of $14.45, indicating a potential upside of 34.84%. Given J & J Snack Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe J & J Snack Foods is more favorable than Simply Good Foods.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.0% of J & J Snack Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.4% of Simply Good Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 20.4% of J & J Snack Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.8% of Simply Good Foods 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.

Dividends

J & J Snack Foods pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Simply Good Foods pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. J & J Snack Foods pays out 123.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Simply Good Foods pays out -16.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. J & J Snack Foods has increased its dividend for 20 consecutive years. J & J Snack Foods is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares J & J Snack Foods and Simply Good Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
J & J Snack Foods	3.23%	8.93%	6.07%
Simply Good Foods	-14.28%	9.34%	6.67%

Summary

J & J Snack Foods beats Simply Good Foods on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About J & J Snack Foods

J&J Snack Foods Corp. engages in the manufacturing of nutritional snack foods and distribution of frozen beverages to the food service and retail supermarket industries. It operates through the following segments: Food Service, Retail Supermarkets, and Frozen Beverages. The Food Service segment includes soft pretzels, frozen novelties, churros, handheld products, and baked goods. The Retail Supermarkets segment offers soft pretzel products including Superpretzel, frozen juice treats and desserts, including Luigi’s real Italian ice, Minute Maid juice bars and soft frozen lemonade, Whole Fruit frozen fruit bars and sorbet, Philly Swirl cups and sticks, ICEE Squeeze-Up Tubes and dough enrobed handheld products including Patio burritos. The Frozen Beverages segment provides frozen beverages to the food service industry primarily under the names ICEE, SLUSH PUPPIE, and PARROT ICE in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as repair and maintenance services. The company was founded by Gerald B. Shreiber in 1971 and is headquartered in Mount Laurel, NJ.

About Simply Good Foods

The Simply Good Foods Company operates as a consumer-packaged food and beverage company in North America and internationally. The company develops, markets, and sells snacks and meal replacements. It offers protein bars, ready-to-drink shakes, sweet and salty snacks, cookies, protein chips, and recipes under the Atkins and Quest brand names. The company also provides confectionery products, such as full-size and mini peanut butter cups, and fudgey brownie and gooey caramel candy bites, chocolatey coated peanut candies, and coconutty caramel candy bars under Atkins Endulge brand name.It distributes its products to various retail channels, such as mass merchandise, grocery and drug channels, club stores, convenience stores, gas stations, and other channels. The company also sells its products through e-commerce channels, including questnutrition.com, atkins.com, amazon.com and others. The Simply Good Foods Company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.