Reviewing USANA Health Sciences (NYSE:USNA) and Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB)

USANA Health Sciences (NYSE:USNA) and Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares USANA Health Sciences and Kimberly-Clark”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
USANA Health Sciences	$925.26 million	0.28	$10.76 million	($1.21)	-11.67
Kimberly-Clark	$16.45 billion	1.98	$2.02 billion	$5.88	16.64

Kimberly-Clark has higher revenue and earnings than USANA Health Sciences. USANA Health Sciences is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kimberly-Clark, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares USANA Health Sciences and Kimberly-Clark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
USANA Health Sciences	-2.43%	3.41%	2.50%
Kimberly-Clark	11.79%	143.92%	14.21%

Risk & Volatility

USANA Health Sciences has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for USANA Health Sciences and Kimberly-Clark, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
USANA Health Sciences	2	0	0	0	1.00
Kimberly-Clark	1	11	4	1	2.29

Kimberly-Clark has a consensus target price of $117.36, indicating a potential upside of 19.92%. Given Kimberly-Clark’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Kimberly-Clark is more favorable than USANA Health Sciences.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

54.2% of USANA Health Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of USANA Health Sciences shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Kimberly-Clark beats USANA Health Sciences on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About USANA Health Sciences

USANA Health Sciences, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells science-based nutritional, personal care, and skincare products in the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. The company offers USANA nutritional products that comprise essentials/CellSentials, such as vitamin and mineral supplements that provide a foundation of total body nutrition for various age groups; optimizers consisting of targeted supplements that are designed to meet cardiovascular, skeletal/structural, and digestive health needs; and food that include meal replacement shakes, snack bars, and other related products. It also provides Celavive, a skin care regimen for various skin care types and ethnicities; and other products for prenatal, infant, and young child age groups. In addition, the company offers materials and online tools to assist associates in building their businesses, as well as in marketing products. It offers its products through retail stores and online. The company has a research collaboration agreement with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine; and National Sports Training Bureau. USANA Health Sciences, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets personal care and consumer tissue products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional. The company’s Personal Care segment offers disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, reusable underwear, and other related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Thinx, Poise, Depend, Plenitud, Softex, and other brand names. Its Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Viva, Andrex, Scottex, Neve, and other brand names. The company’s K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, personal protective equipment, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and KleenGuard brands. It also sells household use products directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores, and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce; and away-from-home use products directly to distributors, manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service, and public facilities, as well as through e-commerce. Kimberly-Clark Corporation was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.