Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) and John B. Sanfilippo & Son (NASDAQ:JBSS) Head to Head Comparison

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

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vital Farms	$759.44 million	0.53	$66.28 million	$1.44	6.54
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	$1.11 billion	0.84	$58.93 million	$5.70	13.90

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.

Volatility & Risk

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

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 company insiders. Comparatively, 30.2% of John B. Sanfilippo & Son shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Vital Farms and John B. Sanfilippo & Son, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vital Farms	1	5	8	0	2.50
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	0	2	1	0	2.33

Vital Farms presently has a consensus price target of $32.42, suggesting a potential upside of 244.02%. John B. Sanfilippo & Son has a consensus price target of $109.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.62%. Given Vital Farms’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly 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	8.73%	20.69%	14.66%
John B. Sanfilippo & Son	5.76%	18.11%	10.88%

Summary

Vital Farms beats John B. Sanfilippo & Son on 9 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.