Analyzing Mission Produce (AVO) and Its Competitors

Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) is one of 328 public companies in the “Food Products” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Mission Produce to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, valuation, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

63.6% of Mission Produce shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by institutional investors. 30.8% of Mission Produce shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.0% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Mission Produce has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mission Produce’s peers have a beta of -3.84, meaning that their average stock price is 484% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Mission Produce and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mission Produce	1	0	4	1	2.83
Mission Produce Competitors	2453	8302	8384	405	2.34

Mission Produce currently has a consensus price target of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 35.02%. As a group, “Food Products” companies have a potential upside of 16.31%. Given Mission Produce’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Mission Produce is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Mission Produce and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mission Produce	0.12%	5.91%	3.41%
Mission Produce Competitors	-12.87%	-127.95%	-2.08%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Mission Produce and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mission Produce	$1.39 billion	$37.70 million	395.00
Mission Produce Competitors	$15.47 billion	$703.44 million	-2,412.52

Mission Produce’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Mission Produce. Mission Produce is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Mission Produce beats its peers on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

About Mission Produce

Mission Produce is a global producer, packer and distributor of fresh avocados and other fruit. The company sources produce from growing regions around the world and provides services that include packing, ripening, quality control and distribution. Founded in 1983 by Steve Barnard, Mission Produce has built a global supply chain serving customers in North America, Europe and Asia. Its sourcing network includes countries such as Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, helping supply fruit across different growing seasons.