Financial Analysis: Dole (DOLE) & The Competition

Dole (NYSE:DOLE) is one of 38 public companies in the “AGRI OPERATIONS” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Dole to related companies based on the strength of its profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.7% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are held by institutional investors. 41.8% of Dole shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.6% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Dole has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole’s peers have a beta of 0.80, meaning that their average share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Dole pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Dole pays out 226.7% 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 3.3% and pay out -99.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Dole has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Dole lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Dole and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dole	0	2	0	0	2.00
Dole Competitors	431	807	1019	38	2.29

Dole presently has a consensus target price of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.53%. As a group, “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies have a potential upside of 39.99%. Given Dole’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Dole has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Dole and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dole	$8.48 billion	$125.51 million	103.03
Dole Competitors	$5.03 billion	$103.81 million	3.45

Dole has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Dole is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Dole and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dole	0.17%	7.98%	2.56%
Dole Competitors	-292.89%	-84.08%	-18.63%

Summary

Dole peers beat Dole on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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.