Head to Head Comparison: Cibus (NASDAQ:CBUS) & Local Bounti (NYSE:LOCL)

Local Bounti (NYSE:LOCL) and Cibus (NASDAQ:CBUS) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Local Bounti and Cibus, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Local Bounti	0	0	0	0	0.00
Cibus	0	0	3	0	3.00

Cibus has a consensus price target of $22.00, indicating a potential upside of 1,505.84%. Given Cibus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cibus is more favorable than Local Bounti.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

28.0% of Local Bounti shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.8% of Cibus shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.8% of Local Bounti shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 31.2% of Cibus shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Local Bounti has a beta of 2.05, meaning that its stock price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cibus has a beta of 1.68, meaning that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Local Bounti and Cibus’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Local Bounti	-294.95%	N/A	-29.97%
Cibus	-5,681.55%	-83.67%	-20.85%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Local Bounti and Cibus”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Local Bounti	$38.14 million	1.26	-$119.90 million	($14.17)	-0.15
Cibus	$4.85 million	15.33	-$251.39 million	($10.45)	-0.13

Local Bounti has higher revenue and earnings than Cibus. Local Bounti is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cibus, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Cibus beats Local Bounti on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Local Bounti

Local Bounti Corporation grows and packs fresh greens in the United States. It produces lettuce, herbs, and loose-leaf lettuce. The company sells its products to food retailers and food service distributors. Local Bounti Corporation was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Montana.

About Cibus

Cibus, Inc., a agricultural biotechnology company, develops and licenses plant traits to seed companies for royalties. The company primarily focus on trait productivity in two areas, including productivity traits that enable farmers to have higher yields and reduce the use of the crop protection chemicals and fertilizers; and sustainable ingredients that enable corporations to replace ingredients that are fossil fuel based or whose production results in increased greenhouse gases. Cibus, Inc. is based in San Diego, California.