Critical Contrast: Calavo Growers (CVGW) vs. Its Rivals

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) is one of 38 publicly-traded companies in the “AGRI OPERATIONS” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Calavo Growers to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Calavo Growers and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Calavo Growers	0	0	1	0	3.00
Calavo Growers Competitors	317	685	964	34	2.36

Calavo Growers currently has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.43%. As a group, “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies have a potential upside of 30.43%. Given Calavo Growers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Calavo Growers is more favorable than its rivals.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

81.3% of Calavo Growers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 46.3% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are owned by institutional investors. 7.2% of Calavo Growers shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.8% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Calavo Growers has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Calavo Growers’ rivals have a beta of 0.80, indicating that their average share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Calavo Growers	1.50%	11.79%	7.38%
Calavo Growers Competitors	-398.01%	-68.52%	-15.22%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Calavo Growers and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Calavo Growers	$661.54 million	-$1.08 million	45.22
Calavo Growers Competitors	$5.34 billion	$126.40 million	8.50

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

Dividends

Calavo Growers pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Calavo Growers pays out 137.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out -375.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Calavo Growers has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Calavo Growers lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Calavo Growers beats its rivals on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Calavo Growers Company Profile

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.