Reviewing Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) and Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA)

Mama’s Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) and Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Mama’s Creations and Flowers Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mama’s Creations	3.08%	16.72%	9.28%
Flowers Foods	1.59%	16.61%	5.38%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Mama’s Creations and Flowers Foods”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mama’s Creations	$151.31 million	4.30	$3.71 million	$0.11	145.64
Flowers Foods	$5.26 billion	0.35	$83.82 million	$0.40	21.56

Flowers Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Mama’s Creations. Flowers Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mama’s Creations, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Mama’s Creations and Flowers Foods, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mama’s Creations	0	2	4	0	2.67
Flowers Foods	2	4	0	0	1.67

Mama’s Creations currently has a consensus target price of $17.60, indicating a potential upside of 9.86%. Flowers Foods has a consensus target price of $12.60, indicating a potential upside of 46.09%. Given Flowers Foods’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Flowers Foods is more favorable than Mama’s Creations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

45.2% of Mama’s Creations shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.5% of Flowers Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 6.5% of Mama’s Creations shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.6% of Flowers Foods shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Mama’s Creations has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flowers Foods has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Mama’s Creations beats Flowers Foods on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Mama’s Creations

Mama’s Creations, Inc. engages in the marketing, manufacturing, and distribution of beef meatballs with sauce, turkey meatballs with sauce, beef meat loaf, sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan, and other similar meats and sauces. Its products include beef meatballs, turkey meatballs, stuffed meatballs, lasagna roll ups, retail ready meals, bulk deli, single-size pasta bowls, and packaged refrigerated products. Its brands include MamaMancini’s, Creative Salads, and The Olive Branch. The company was founded by Daniel Dougherty on July 22, 2009 and is headquartered in East Rutherford, NJ.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc. produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs. Freshley's, and Tastykake brand names. The company distributes its products through a direct-store-delivery distribution and a warehouse delivery system, as well as operates bakeries. Its customers include national and regional restaurants, institutions and foodservice distributors, and retail in-store bakeries; wholesale distributors; mass merchandisers, supermarkets, vending outlets, and convenience stores; quick-serve chains, food wholesalers, institutions, dollar stores, and vending companies; and public health care, military commissaries, and prisons, and other governmental institutions. The company was formerly known as Flowers Industries and changed its name to Flowers Foods, Inc. in 2001. Flowers Foods, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia.