Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO – Get Free Report) and Olaplex (NASDAQ:OLPX – Get Free Report) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk and valuation.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
42.4% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of Olaplex shares are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Olaplex shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
Alto Ingredients has a beta of 0.04, meaning that its share price is 96% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Olaplex has a beta of 2, meaning that its share price is 100% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Alto Ingredients | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Olaplex | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
Olaplex has a consensus target price of $1.89, indicating a potential downside of 7.04%. Given Olaplex’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Olaplex is more favorable than Alto Ingredients.
Profitability
This table compares Alto Ingredients and Olaplex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Alto Ingredients | 1.45% | 2.99% | 1.69% |
| Olaplex | -2.19% | 1.07% | 0.60% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Alto Ingredients and Olaplex”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Alto Ingredients | $917.93 million | 0.39 | $13.34 million | $0.16 | 29.19 |
| Olaplex | $422.96 million | 3.21 | -$9.25 million | ($0.01) | -203.00 |
Alto Ingredients has higher revenue and earnings than Olaplex. Olaplex is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alto Ingredients, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Alto Ingredients beats Olaplex on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Alto Ingredients
Alto Ingredients, Inc. produces, distributes, and markets specialty alcohols, renewable fuel, and essential ingredients in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Marketing and Distribution, Pekin Campus Production, and Western Production. It offers specialty alcohols used in mouthwash, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and cleaners for health, home, and beauty markets; grain neutral spirits used in alcoholic beverages and vinegar, as well as corn germ used in corn oils in the food and beverage markets; alcohols and other products for paint applications and fertilizers in the industrial and agriculture markets; and essential ingredients include dried yeast, corn protein meal, corn protein feed, distiller's grains, and liquid feed for commercial animal feed and pet food applications, as well as yeast for human consumption. The company also provides fuel-grade ethanol used as transportation fuel and distillers corn oil used as a biodiesel feedstock, as well as fuel-grade ethanol produced by third parties. In addition, it offers transportation, storage, and delivery services through third-party service providers. The company sells ethanol to integrated oil companies and gasoline marketers; essential ingredient feed products to dairies and feedlots; and corn oil to poultry, renewable diesel, and biodiesel customers. It operates alcohol production facilities. The company was formerly known as Pacific Ethanol, Inc. and changed its name to Alto Ingredients, Inc. in January 2021. Alto Ingredients, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Pekin, Illinois.
About Olaplex
Olaplex Holdings, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells hair care products in the United States and internationally. The company offers hair care shampoos and conditioners for use in treatment, maintenance, and protection of hair, as well as oil, moisture mask, and nourishing hair serum. It provides hair care products to professional hair salons, retailers, and everyday consumers. The company distributes its products through professional distributors in salons, directly to retailers for sale in their physical stores, e-commerce sites, and its website, Olaplex.com, as well as third party e-commerce platforms. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Santa Barbara, California.
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