Critical Analysis: Dole (NYSE:DOLE) vs. The Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ:HAIN)

The Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ:HAIN) and Dole (NYSE:DOLE) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares The Hain Celestial Group and Dole’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
The Hain Celestial Group	-22.53%	-5.45%	-1.18%
Dole	0.63%	7.06%	2.33%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for The Hain Celestial Group and Dole, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
The Hain Celestial Group	3	4	0	0	1.57
Dole	0	3	0	1	2.50

The Hain Celestial Group presently has a consensus target price of $0.90, indicating a potential upside of 504.08%. Dole has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 0.70%. Given The Hain Celestial Group’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe The Hain Celestial Group is more favorable than Dole.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares The Hain Celestial Group and Dole”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
The Hain Celestial Group	$1.35 billion	0.01	-$304.92 million	($3.36)	-0.04
Dole	$9.49 billion	0.14	$51.32 million	$0.62	22.42

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.0% of The Hain Celestial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of The Hain Celestial Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 41.8% of Dole shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

The Hain Celestial Group has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Dole beats The Hain Celestial Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About The Hain Celestial Group

The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. manufactures, markets, and sells organic and natural products in United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and internationally. It operates through two segments: North America and International. The company offers infant formula; infant, toddler, and kids' food; plant-based beverages and frozen desserts, such as soy, rice, oat, and spelt; and condiments. It also provides cooking and culinary oils; cereal bars; fresh and aseptic soups; yogurts; and nut butters. In addition, the company offers hot-eating desserts, refrigerated and frozen plant-based meat-alternative products, jams, fruit spreads, jellies, honey, natural sweeteners, syrups, dessert sauces, and marmalade products, as well as other food products. Further, it provides snack products comprising potato, root vegetable and other exotic vegetable chips, straws, tortilla chips; and personal care products that include hand, skin, hair, and oral care products, as well as deodorants, baby food, sunscreens, and other products under the Alba Botanica, Avalon Organics, Earth's Best, JASON, Live Clean, and Queen Helene brands name. Additionally, the company offers herbal, green, black, wellness, rooibos, and chai tea under the Celestial Seasonings brand. It sells pantry products under the Spectrum, Spectrum Essentials, MaraNatha, Imagine broths, Hain Pure Foods, Health Valley, and Hollywood brands. It sells its products through specialty and natural food distributors, supermarkets, natural food stores, mass-market and e-commerce retailers, food service channels and clubs, and drug and convenience stores. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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.