Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) versus Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) Financial Survey

Pilgrim’s Pride (NASDAQ:PPC) and Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Pilgrim’s Pride has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vital Farms has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

16.6% of Pilgrim’s Pride shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.6% of Vital Farms shares are owned by institutional investors. 82.2% of Pilgrim’s Pride shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of Vital Farms shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares Pilgrim’s Pride and Vital Farms’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pilgrim’s Pride	2.96%	21.70%	7.90%
Vital Farms	0.02%	3.46%	2.25%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Pilgrim’s Pride and Vital Farms, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pilgrim’s Pride	1	5	2	0	2.12
Vital Farms	1	8	5	0	2.29

Pilgrim’s Pride currently has a consensus target price of $36.50, indicating a potential upside of 32.10%. Vital Farms has a consensus target price of $17.18, indicating a potential upside of 66.65%. Given Vital Farms’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Vital Farms is more favorable than Pilgrim’s Pride.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pilgrim’s Pride and Vital Farms”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pilgrim’s Pride	$18.50 billion	0.36	$1.08 billion	$2.30	12.01
Vital Farms	$765.67 million	0.58	$66.28 million	($0.04)	-257.75

Pilgrim’s Pride has higher revenue and earnings than Vital Farms. Vital Farms is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pilgrim’s Pride, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Pilgrim’s Pride beats Vital Farms on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pilgrim’s Pride

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. engages in the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of fresh, frozen and value-added chicken and pork products to retailers, distributors, and foodservice operators. It operates through the following segments: U.S., U.K. and Europe, and Mexico. The company was founded by Lonnie A. Pilgrim and Aubrey Pilgrim on October 2, 1946, and is headquartered in Greeley, CO.

About Vital Farms

Vital Farms, Inc., a food company, provides pasture-raised products in the United States. It offers shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs, and liquid whole eggs. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.