Dole (NYSE:DOLE) versus Cibus (NASDAQ:CBUS) Head to Head Analysis

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

33.8% of Cibus shares are held by institutional investors. 49.4% of Cibus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 41.8% of Dole shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cibus	$4.26 million	16.56	-$251.39 million	($3.26)	-0.40
Dole	$8.97 billion	0.15	$125.51 million	$0.15	94.43

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

Risk & Volatility

Cibus has a beta of 1.62, meaning that its stock price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole has a beta of 0.65, meaning that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cibus	1	0	2	0	2.33
Dole	0	2	0	0	2.00

Cibus presently has a consensus target price of $21.25, suggesting a potential upside of 1,534.62%. Dole has a consensus target price of $16.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.95%. Given Cibus’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Cibus is more favorable than Dole.

Profitability

This table compares Cibus and Dole’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cibus	-3,133.92%	-133.90%	-28.78%
Dole	0.28%	8.17%	2.62%

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.

About Dole

Dole Food Company, Inc. (Dole) is a producer, marketer and distributor of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. The Company is a producer of bananas and pineapples, and packaged fruit products, packaged salads and fresh-packed vegetables. The Company has three business segments: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and packaged foods. The fresh fruit segment contains operating divisions that produce and market fresh fruit to wholesale, retail and institutional customers worldwide. The fresh vegetables segment produces and markets fresh-packed and value-added vegetables and salads to wholesale, retail and institutional customers, primarily in North America and Europe. The packaged foods segment contains several operating divisions that produce and market packaged foods, including fruit, juices, frozen fruit and healthy snack foods. In November 2013, Dole Food Company, Inc announced that an investor group acquired the remaining 60.43% interest in the Company.