Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO) and Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) Head to Head Comparison

Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO) and Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Adecoagro has a beta of -0.04, meaning that its share price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Calavo Growers has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Adecoagro and Calavo Growers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adecoagro	-0.55%	-1.17%	-0.46%
Calavo Growers	2.61%	12.81%	8.77%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Adecoagro and Calavo Growers”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adecoagro	$1.43 billion	0.92	-$8.35 million	($0.08)	-163.98
Calavo Growers	$648.43 million	0.76	$19.80 million	$0.89	30.87

Calavo Growers has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Adecoagro. Adecoagro is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Calavo Growers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Adecoagro and Calavo Growers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adecoagro	1	5	1	0	2.00
Calavo Growers	0	2	1	0	2.33

Adecoagro presently has a consensus price target of $11.53, suggesting a potential downside of 12.08%. Calavo Growers has a consensus price target of $33.50, suggesting a potential upside of 21.95%. Given Calavo Growers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Calavo Growers is more favorable than Adecoagro.

Dividends

Adecoagro pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Calavo Growers pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Adecoagro pays out -300.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Calavo Growers pays out 89.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Adecoagro has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Calavo Growers has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.3% of Adecoagro shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.3% of Calavo Growers shares are held by institutional investors. 6.7% of Adecoagro shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.2% of Calavo Growers shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Calavo Growers beats Adecoagro on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adecoagro

Adecoagro S.A. operates as an agro-industrial company in South America. The company mainly operates through three segments: Farming; Sugar, Ethanol and Energy; and Land Transformation. It engages in farming crops, rice and other agricultural products, dairy operations, and land transformation activities, as well as sugar, ethanol, and energy production activities. The company is involved in the planting, harvesting, and sale of grains, oilseeds, and fibers, including wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, sunflowers, and others; provision of grain warehousing/conditioning, handling, and drying services to third parties; and purchase and sale of crops produced by third parties. It also plants, harvests, processes, and markets rice; and produces and sells raw milk, UHT, cheese, and powder milk. In addition, the company engages in the cultivating and transforming of sugarcane into ethanol, sugar, and electricity. Further, it is involved in the identification and acquisition of underdeveloped and undermanaged farmland, and the realization of value through the strategic disposition of assets. Adecoagro S.A. was founded in 2002 and is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

About Calavo Growers

Calavo Growers, Inc. markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. The Prepared segment is involved in the distribution of prepared avocado products, salsa, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, fresh prepared entrees salads, wraps, sandwiches, parfaits, and fresh snacking products, as well as ready-to-heat entrees, other hot bars and various deli items, meals kit components, and salad kits. It offers its products under the Calavo brands and related logos; and Avo Fresco, Bueno, Avo Fresco, Bueno, Calavo Gold, Celebrate the Taste, El Dorado, Taste of Paradise, The First Name in Avocados, The Family of Fresh, ProRipeVIP, RIPE NOW!, Renaissance Food Group, Garden Highway Fresh Cut, Garden Highway, and Garden Highway Chef Essentials trademarks. Calavo Growers, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Santa Paula, California.