Head to Head Contrast: Edible Garden (NASDAQ:EDBL) versus Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ)

Edible Garden (NASDAQ:EDBL) and Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.0% of Edible Garden shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Utz Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Edible Garden shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.7% of Utz Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Edible Garden has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Utz Brands has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Edible Garden and Utz Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Edible Garden	-122.09%	N/A	-78.65%
Utz Brands	-2.00%	8.97%	4.32%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Edible Garden and Utz Brands, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Edible Garden	1	0	1	0	2.00
Utz Brands	1	9	1	0	2.00

Edible Garden currently has a consensus price target of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 5,603.42%. Utz Brands has a consensus price target of $13.39, indicating a potential downside of 6.55%. Given Edible Garden’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Edible Garden is more favorable than Utz Brands.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Edible Garden and Utz Brands”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Edible Garden	$12.81 million	0.08	-$17.33 million	($1,994.47)	-0.00
Utz Brands	$1.44 billion	1.43	$800,000.00	($0.33)	-43.41

Utz Brands has higher revenue and earnings than Edible Garden. Utz Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Edible Garden, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Utz Brands beats Edible Garden on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Edible Garden

Edible Garden AG Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, operate as a controlled environment agriculture farming company. It offers various packaged products, including cilantro, rosemary, mint, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, chives, poultry mix, sage, dill, buttercrunch living lettuce, basil, living butterhead lettuce, basil, parsley, arugula spring mix, baby arugula blend, baby romaine, and crisp ranch and Caesar salad kits. The company sells its products to various regional and national supermarkets. Edible Garden AG Incorporated was founded in 2020 and is based in Belvidere, New Jersey.

About Utz Brands

Utz Brands, Inc. engages in manufacture, marketing, and distribution of snack foods. It offers a range of salty snacks, including salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips, salsa and dips, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp’s, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TORTIYAHS!, etc. The company sells its products to wholesale and other distributors, grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, discount stores, mass merchandisers, membership club stores, hard discounters, and specialty and e-commerce retailers. Utz Brands, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania.