Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) and John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) Head-To-Head Review

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) and John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.6% of Vital Farms shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by institutional investors. 21.3% of Vital Farms shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 30.2% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Vital Farms and John B. Sanfilippo & Son, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vital Farms	1	9	5	0	2.27
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	0	2	1	0	2.33

Vital Farms currently has a consensus target price of $27.33, suggesting a potential upside of 228.13%. John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a consensus target price of $109.00, suggesting a potential upside of 44.03%. Given Vital Farms’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Vital Farms is more favorable than John B. Sanfilippo & Son.

Profitability

This table compares Vital Farms and John B. Sanfilippo & Son’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vital Farms	6.10%	14.47%	9.95%
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	5.76%	18.11%	10.88%

Volatility and Risk

Vital Farms has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Vital Farms and John B. Sanfilippo & Son”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vital Farms	$759.44 million	0.47	$66.28 million	$1.04	8.01
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	$1.16 billion	0.76	$58.93 million	$5.70	13.28

Vital Farms has higher earnings, but lower revenue than John B. Sanfilippo & Son. Vital Farms is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than John B. Sanfilippo & Son, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

John B. Sanfilippo & Son beats Vital Farms on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vital Farms

Vital Farms, Inc., a food company, provides pasture-raised products in the United States. It offers shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs, and liquid whole eggs. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About John B. Sanfilippo & Son

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. engages in the processing and distribution of nuts and nut-related products. It offers peanuts, pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and other nuts under the brands of Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, Squirrel Brand, and Southern Style Nuts. The company was founded by Gaspare Sanfilippo and John B. Sanfilippo in 1922 and is headquartered in Elgin, IL.