Head-To-Head Contrast: Middleby (MIDD) & Its Competitors

Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) is one of 436 publicly-traded companies in the “Machinery” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Middleby to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.5% of Middleby shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.7% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of Middleby shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Machinery” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Middleby and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Middleby	1	2	6	0	2.56
Middleby Competitors	4190	14675	18173	803	2.41

Middleby presently has a consensus target price of $158.25, indicating a potential upside of 33.04%. As a group, “Machinery” companies have a potential upside of 32.05%. Given Middleby’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Middleby is more favorable than its rivals.

Risk and Volatility

Middleby has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Middleby’s rivals have a beta of 4.69, indicating that their average stock price is 369% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Middleby and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Middleby	$3.20 billion	-$277.73 million	-12.85
Middleby Competitors	$4.63 billion	$364.57 million	3.54

Middleby’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Middleby. Middleby is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Middleby and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Middleby	-13.22%	17.44%	7.66%
Middleby Competitors	-1,044.47%	-15.12%	0.54%

Summary

Middleby beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

Middleby Company Profile

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing. The company's Food Processing Equipment Group segment provides batch, baking, proofing, conveyor belt, and continuous processing ovens; frying and automated thermal processing systems; tumblers, massagers, grinders, slicers, reduction and emulsion systems, mixers, and blenders; battering, breading, and seeding equipment; water cutting systems, food presses, food suspension equipment, filling and depositing solutions, and forming equipment; and automated washing systems, auto-guided vehicles, food safety, food handling, freezing, and defrosting and packaging equipment. Its Residential Kitchen Equipment Group segment offers kitchen equipment comprising cookers, stoves, cooktops, microwaves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, undercounter refrigeration, wine cellars, ice machines, beer dispensers, mixers, rotisseries, and ventilation and outdoor cooking equipment. The company was formerly known as Middleby Marshall Oven Company and changed its name to The Middleby Corporation in 1985. The company was founded in 1888 and is based in Elgin, Illinois.