Analyzing FMC (NYSE:FMC) & Dole (NYSE:DOLE)

FMC (NYSE:FMC) and Dole (NYSE:DOLE) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.9% of FMC shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of FMC shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 41.8% of Dole shares are owned 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares FMC and Dole”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FMC	$3.47 billion	0.63	-$2.24 billion	($17.85)	-0.98
Dole	$9.17 billion	0.16	$51.32 million	$0.53	29.59

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for FMC and Dole, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FMC	2	9	2	0	2.00
Dole	0	3	0	0	2.00

FMC presently has a consensus price target of $19.86, suggesting a potential upside of 14.00%. Dole has a consensus price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.18%. Given FMC’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe FMC is more favorable than Dole.

Dividends

FMC pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Dole pays an annual dividend of $0.34 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. FMC pays out -1.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dole pays out 64.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Dole has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Dole is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FMC	-64.57%	10.10%	3.24%
Dole	0.56%	7.81%	2.55%

Risk and Volatility

FMC has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Dole beats FMC on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About FMC

FMC Corporation, an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, and professional pest and turf management products. It develops, markets, and sells crop protection chemicals that includes insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products, which are used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds, and diseases, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control. The company markets its products through its own sales organization and through alliance partners, independent distributors, and sales representatives. It operates in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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.