Which Is a Better Investment, The Kraft Heinz Company or Smithfield Foods, Inc. Stock?

By Tudor Pop
March 28, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the Food Products industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc.

The Kraft Heinz Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets food and beverage products in North America and internationally. Its products include condiments, sauces, dressings, and spreads; cheese, frozen potato products, and other frozen meals; meal kits, frozen snacks, and pickles; dry packaged desserts, refrigerated ready to eat desserts, and other dessert toppings; ready to drink and powdered beverages, and liquid concentrates; American sliced and recipe cheeses; mainstream coffee, coffee pods, and premium coffee; and cold cuts, bacon, and hot dogs. It offers its products under the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Ore-Ida, Capri Sun, Maxwell House, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, ABC, Master, Quero, Golden Circle, Wattie’s, Pudliszki, and Plasmon brands, as well as Bagel Bites, Claussen, A1, and Cool Whip. It sells its products through its own sales organizations, as well as through independent brokers, agents, and distributors to chain, wholesale, cooperative, and independent grocery accounts; convenience, value, and club stores; pharmacies and drug stores; mass merchants; foodservice distributors; institutions, including hotels, restaurants, bakeries, hospitals, health care facilities, and government agencies; and various e-commerce platforms and retailers. The company has a strategic partnership with the National Football League. The company was formerly known as H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation and changed its name to The Kraft Heinz Company in July 2015. The company was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Smithfield Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, produces various packaged meats and fresh pork products in the United States and internationally. It operates through Packaged Meats, Fresh Pork, Hog Production, and Other segments. The Packaged Meats segment processes fresh meat into various packaged meats products, including bacon, sausage, hot dogs, deli and lunch meats, dry sausage products, ham products, ready-to-eat products, and prepared foods to retail and foodservice customers. This segment markets its packaged meat products under the Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan’s Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, Krakus, John Morrell, Cook’s, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curly’s and Smithfield Culinary, as well as under private labels. The Fresh Pork segment processes live hogs into a variety of primal, sub-primal, and offal products, such as bellies, butts, hams, loins, trimmings, picnics, and ribs. This segment sells its fresh pork products to retail, foodservice and industrial customers, as well as to export markets, including China, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Canada. The Hog Production segment produces and raises its hogs on various company-owned farms and farms that are owned and operated by contract farmers. This segment also sells livestock feed and grains; and provides transportation and other ancillary services. The Other segment engages in the bioscience operations uses raw materials from hogs that process to manufacture heparin products, including an active pharmaceutical ingredient that mitigates the risk of blood clots; and produces fresh pork products in Mexico. The company was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia. Smithfield Foods, Inc. is a subsidiary of SFDS UK Holdings Limited.

Latest Food Products and The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods, Inc. Stock News

As of March 27, 2026, The Kraft Heinz Company had a $26.1 billion market capitalization, compared to the Food Products median of $2.0 million. The Kraft Heinz Company’s stock is down 9.1% in 2026, up 2.2% in the previous five trading days and down 25.77% in the past year.

Currently, The Kraft Heinz Company does not have a price-earnings ratio. The Kraft Heinz Company’s trailing 12-month revenue is $24.9 billion with a -23.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -3.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.035 per share for the current fiscal year. The Kraft Heinz Company currently has a 7.3% dividend yield.

As of March 27, 2026, Smithfield Foods, Inc. had a $10.5 billion market cap, putting it in the 79th percentile of all stocks. Smithfield Foods, Inc.’s stock is up 19.5% in 2026, up 15.4% in the previous five trading days and up 35.41% in the past year.

Currently, Smithfield Foods, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 10.6. Smithfield Foods, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $15.5 billion with a 6.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 7.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.690 per share for the current fiscal year. Smithfield Foods, Inc. currently has a 4.7% dividend yield.

How We Compare The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company Ticker Value
The Kraft Heinz Company KHC A
Smithfield Foods, Inc. SFD B

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

The Kraft Heinz Company has a Value Score of 91, which is Deep Value. Smithfield Foods, Inc. has a Value Score of 75, which is Value.

The Value Stock Winner: The Kraft Heinz Company

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, The Kraft Heinz Company is considered to have better value than Smithfield Foods, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, The Kraft Heinz Company could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. Growth Grades

Company Ticker Growth
The Kraft Heinz Company KHC D
Smithfield Foods, Inc. SFD C

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

The Kraft Heinz Company has a Growth Score of 25, which is Weak. Smithfield Foods, Inc. has a Growth Score of 56, which is Average.

The Growth Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods or Inc. has a high enough Growth Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to sustainable growth.

The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
The Kraft Heinz Company KHC B
Smithfield Foods, Inc. SFD B

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

The Kraft Heinz Company has a Quality Score of 68, which is Strong. Smithfield Foods, Inc. has a Quality Score of 72, which is Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. have a grade of B. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

Don’t Forget Your Free Special Report on How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Investment Decisions

Other The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Growth and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

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Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods or Inc. Stock?

Overall, The Kraft Heinz Company stock has a Value Score of 91, Growth Score of 25 and Quality Score of 68.

Smithfield Foods, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 75, Growth Score of 56 and Quality Score of 72.

Comparing The Kraft Heinz Company, Smithfield Foods and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

Learn More About A+ Investor

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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