Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ:KMB) vs. Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE:NUS) Financial Comparison

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Nu Skin Enterprises and Kimberly-Clark, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nu Skin Enterprises	2	0	0	0	1.00
Kimberly-Clark	1	11	4	1	2.29

Kimberly-Clark has a consensus price target of $117.36, suggesting a potential upside of 20.45%. Given Kimberly-Clark’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Kimberly-Clark is more favorable than Nu Skin Enterprises.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

82.8% of Nu Skin Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Nu Skin Enterprises shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Kimberly-Clark shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Nu Skin Enterprises pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Kimberly-Clark pays an annual dividend of $5.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Nu Skin Enterprises pays out -5.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kimberly-Clark pays out 87.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kimberly-Clark has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years. Nu Skin Enterprises is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Nu Skin Enterprises and Kimberly-Clark”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nu Skin Enterprises	$1.49 billion	0.15	$160.20 million	($4.47)	-1.01
Kimberly-Clark	$16.45 billion	1.97	$2.02 billion	$5.88	16.57

Kimberly-Clark has higher revenue and earnings than Nu Skin Enterprises. Nu Skin Enterprises 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 Nu Skin Enterprises and Kimberly-Clark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nu Skin Enterprises	-15.73%	6.58%	3.63%
Kimberly-Clark	11.79%	143.92%	14.21%

Risk and Volatility

Nu Skin Enterprises has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.25, meaning that its share price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Kimberly-Clark beats Nu Skin Enterprises on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nu Skin Enterprises

Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and distribution of various beauty and wellness products worldwide. It offers skin care devices, cosmetics, and other personal care products, including ageLOC LumiSpa and ageLOC LumiSpa iO; and nutricentials skin care products. The company also provides wellness products, such as LifePak nutritional supplements, ageLOC TR90 weight management system, and Beauty Focus Collagen+. In addition, it is involved in the research and product development of skin care products and nutritional supplements. The company sells its products under the Nu Skin, Pharmanex, and ageLOC brands through retail stores, website, digital platforms, and independent direct sellers and marketers, as well as a service center. Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Provo, 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.