Contrasting FMC (NYSE:FMC) & Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO)

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

Volatility & Risk

Adecoagro has a beta of -0.04, meaning that its share price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FMC has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adecoagro	0.95%	-2.38%	-0.90%
FMC	-72.93%	10.53%	2.95%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Adecoagro and FMC, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adecoagro	1	5	1	0	2.00
FMC	4	8	2	0	1.86

Adecoagro presently has a consensus target price of $12.12, suggesting a potential upside of 16.16%. FMC has a consensus target price of $15.71, suggesting a potential upside of 46.56%. Given FMC’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe FMC is more favorable than Adecoagro.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Adecoagro and FMC”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adecoagro	$1.43 billion	1.04	-$8.35 million	$0.02	521.55
FMC	$3.47 billion	0.39	-$2.24 billion	($19.98)	-0.54

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

45.3% of Adecoagro shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of FMC shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of FMC shares are held by company 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.

Dividends

Adecoagro pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. FMC pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Adecoagro pays out 1,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. FMC pays out -1.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Adecoagro has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. FMC is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

FMC beats Adecoagro on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adecoagro

Adecoagro S.A. operates as an agro-industrial company in South America. The company mainly operates through three segments: Farming; Sugar, Ethanol and Energy; and Land Transformation. It engages in farming crops, rice and other agricultural products, dairy operations, and land transformation activities, as well as sugar, ethanol, and energy production activities. The company is involved in the planting, harvesting, and sale of grains, oilseeds, and fibers, including wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, sunflowers, and others; provision of grain warehousing/conditioning, handling, and drying services to third parties; and purchase and sale of crops produced by third parties. It also plants, harvests, processes, and markets rice; and produces and sells raw milk, UHT, cheese, and powder milk. In addition, the company engages in the cultivating and transforming of sugarcane into ethanol, sugar, and electricity. Further, it is involved in the identification and acquisition of underdeveloped and undermanaged farmland, and the realization of value through the strategic disposition of assets. Adecoagro S.A. was founded in 2002 and is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

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.