Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) & Foxx Development (NASDAQ:FOXX) Critical Contrast

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) and Foxx Development (NASDAQ:FOXX) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Alto Ingredients and Foxx Development”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alto Ingredients	$922.31 million	0.21	-$58.98 million	($0.69)	-3.67
Foxx Development	$65.92 million	0.46	-$9.02 million	($1.44)	-3.13

Foxx Development has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alto Ingredients. Alto Ingredients is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Foxx Development, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Alto Ingredients and Foxx Development’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alto Ingredients	-7.16%	-18.78%	-10.60%
Foxx Development	-15.26%	N/A	-27.37%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.4% of Alto Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.4% of Foxx Development shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of Alto Ingredients shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.8% of Foxx Development shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Alto Ingredients has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Foxx Development has a beta of -0.2, meaning that its stock price is 120% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Alto Ingredients and Foxx Development, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alto Ingredients	1	0	1	1	2.67
Foxx Development	1	0	0	0	1.00

Alto Ingredients currently has a consensus target price of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 116.96%. Given Alto Ingredients’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Alto Ingredients is more favorable than Foxx Development.

Summary

Alto Ingredients beats Foxx Development on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alto Ingredients

Alto Ingredients, Inc. produces, distributes, and markets specialty alcohols, renewable fuel, and essential ingredients in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Marketing and Distribution, Pekin Campus Production, and Western Production. It offers specialty alcohols used in mouthwash, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and cleaners for health, home, and beauty markets; grain neutral spirits used in alcoholic beverages and vinegar, as well as corn germ used in corn oils in the food and beverage markets; alcohols and other products for paint applications and fertilizers in the industrial and agriculture markets; and essential ingredients include dried yeast, corn protein meal, corn protein feed, distiller's grains, and liquid feed for commercial animal feed and pet food applications, as well as yeast for human consumption. The company also provides fuel-grade ethanol used as transportation fuel and distillers corn oil used as a biodiesel feedstock, as well as fuel-grade ethanol produced by third parties. In addition, it offers transportation, storage, and delivery services through third-party service providers. The company sells ethanol to integrated oil companies and gasoline marketers; essential ingredient feed products to dairies and feedlots; and corn oil to poultry, renewable diesel, and biodiesel customers. It operates alcohol production facilities. The company was formerly known as Pacific Ethanol, Inc. and changed its name to Alto Ingredients, Inc. in January 2021. Alto Ingredients, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Pekin, Illinois.

About Foxx Development

Foxx Development Holdings Inc. is a consumer electronics and integrated Internet-of-Things solution company catering to both retail and institutional clients. The company currently sells a diverse range of products including mobile phones, tablets and other consumer electronics devices principally in United State and is in the process of developing and distributing end-to-end communication terminals and IoT solutions. Foxx Development Holdings Inc., formerly known as Acri Capital Acquisition Corporation, is based in Austin, TX.