Critical Review: Australian Oilseeds (NASDAQ:COOT) and Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA)

Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) and Australian Oilseeds (NASDAQ:COOT) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.5% of Seneca Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.9% of Australian Oilseeds shares are held by institutional investors. 8.4% of Seneca Foods shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 69.1% of Australian Oilseeds shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Seneca Foods and Australian Oilseeds, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seneca Foods	0	0	1	0	3.00
Australian Oilseeds	1	0	0	0	1.00

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Seneca Foods and Australian Oilseeds”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seneca Foods	$1.61 billion	0.51	$41.22 million	$8.62	13.87
Australian Oilseeds	$41.70 million	0.54	-$840,000.00	($0.04)	-20.05

Seneca Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Australian Oilseeds. Australian Oilseeds is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Seneca Foods, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Seneca Foods and Australian Oilseeds’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seneca Foods	3.73%	9.68%	5.03%
Australian Oilseeds	-2.98%	-104.19%	-4.15%

Risk and Volatility

Seneca Foods has a beta of 0.13, meaning that its share price is 87% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Australian Oilseeds has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Seneca Foods beats Australian Oilseeds on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Seneca Foods

Seneca Foods Corporation provides packaged fruits and vegetables in the United States and internationally. The company offers canned, frozen, and jarred produce; jarred fruit; and snack chips and other food products under the private label, as well as under various national and regional brands that the company owns or licenses, including Seneca, Libby’s, Aunt Nellie’s, Cherryman, Green Valley, and READ. In addition, it packs canned and frozen vegetables under contract packing agreements. Further, the company engages in the sale of cans, ends, and seeds, as well as trucking and aircraft operations. It provides its products to grocery outlets, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, limited assortment stores, club stores, and dollar stores; specialty retailers; and food service distributors, restaurant chains, industrial markets, other food packagers, and export customers in approximately 55 countries, as well as federal, state, and local governments for school and other feeding programs. Seneca Foods Corporation was incorporated in 1949 and is headquartered in Fairport, New York.

About Australian Oilseeds

Australian Oilseeds Holdings Ltd. engages in the manufacture and sale oil seeds through its subsidiaries. It focuses on acquiring, engaging in a share exchange, share reconstruction, and amalgamation with, purchasing all or substantially all the assets of, entering contractual arrangements with, or engaging in any other similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. The company was founded on December 29, 2022 and is headquartered in Cootamundra, Australia.