Head to Head Review: UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCFF) and Ajinomoto (OTCMKTS:AJINY)

UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCFF) and Ajinomoto (OTCMKTS:AJINY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for UniCredit and Ajinomoto, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UniCredit	0	0	0	1	4.00
Ajinomoto	0	0	0	0	0.00

Profitability

This table compares UniCredit and Ajinomoto’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniCredit	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ajinomoto	6.02%	10.45%	5.06%

Volatility and Risk

UniCredit has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ajinomoto has a beta of 0.13, meaning that its stock price is 87% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares UniCredit and Ajinomoto”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UniCredit	$25.63 billion	4.58	$9.32 billion	N/A	N/A
Ajinomoto	$9.97 billion	2.02	$601.14 million	$1.20	32.98

UniCredit has higher revenue and earnings than Ajinomoto.

Summary

UniCredit beats Ajinomoto on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UniCredit

UniCredit S.p.A. provides commercial banking services in Italy, Germany, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. It offers retail, private, and wealth management solutions; and institutional investor solutions. The company also provides corporate finance advisory, rating advisory, financial sponsor, patient capital, capital structure advisory, and finance solutions, as well as securities services. In addition, it offers transactional and risk management, and strategic advisory and funding services; group trade and correspondent banking services; and payments and cash management solutions. The company serves SME, corporate, multinational corporate, financial institution, and public sector clients, as well as retail, private banking, wealth management, and family office clients. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

About Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. engages in the seasonings and foods, frozen foods, and healthcare and other businesses in Japan and internationally. The Seasonings and Foods segment offers sauces and seasoning products under the AJI-NO-MOTO, HON-DASHI, Cook Do, Ajinomoto KK Consommé, Pure Select Mayonnaise, Ros Dee, Masako, Aji-ngon, Sazón, Sajiku, and CRISPY FRY names; and solutions and ingredients for foodservice and processed food manufacturers, processed foods, and restaurants, as well as industrial, retail, and other applications. This segment also provides instant noodles under the Knorr Cup Soup and YumYum names; coffee beverages under the Birdy and Blendy brands; powdered drink under the Birdy 3in1 name; MAXIM brand products; Chyotto Zeitakuna Kohiten brand products; and gift sets and office supplies comprising coffee vending machines, tea servers, etc. The Frozen Foods segment offers Chinese dumplings, cooked rice, noodles, desserts, shumai, processed chicken, and other products under the AJINOMOTO FRESH FROZEN, Bernardi, FRED’S, Golden Tiger, José Olé, LingLing, POSADA, and TAI PEI brands. The Healthcare and Other segment provides amino acids for applications in various industries, such as pharmaceuticals and foods; contract development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical intermediates and active ingredients, aseptic fill finish services, etc.; personal care ingredients; and medical foods, crop services, etc. This segment also offers Ajinomoto Build-up Film, an interlayer insulating material for semiconductor packages; fundamental foods under the Glyna and Amino Aile names; sports nutrition supplements under the amino VITAL brand; and functional materials, such as activated carbon, release paper, etc. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.