Head-To-Head Comparison: Dole (NYSE:DOLE) & S&W Seed (NASDAQ:SANW)

S&W Seed (NASDAQ:SANW) and Dole (NYSE:DOLE) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.7% of S&W Seed shares are held by institutional investors. 11.4% of S&W Seed shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for S&W Seed and Dole, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
S&W Seed	0	0	1	0	3.00
Dole	0	2	0	0	2.00

S&W Seed presently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 124,278.11%. Dole has a consensus price target of $16.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.27%. Given S&W Seed’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe S&W Seed is more favorable than Dole.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares S&W Seed and Dole”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
S&W Seed	$54.99 million	0.00	-$30.03 million	($14.24)	0.00
Dole	$9.17 billion	0.16	$51.32 million	$0.53	29.81

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

Profitability

This table compares S&W Seed and Dole’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
S&W Seed	-85.38%	-50.81%	-17.71%
Dole	0.56%	7.81%	2.52%

Volatility and Risk

S&W Seed has a beta of 1.93, indicating that its share price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole has a beta of 0.64, indicating that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Dole beats S&W Seed on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About S&W Seed

S&W Seed Co. engages in the breeding, production, and sale of stevia and alfalfa seeds. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Longmont, CO.

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.