Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR) & Lavoro (NASDAQ:LVRO) Head-To-Head Comparison

Lavoro (NASDAQ:LVRO) and Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Lavoro and Limoneira, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lavoro	3	1	0	0	1.25
Limoneira	1	2	2	0	2.20

Lavoro presently has a consensus price target of $3.44, suggesting a potential upside of 663.89%. Limoneira has a consensus price target of $18.50, suggesting a potential upside of 46.48%. Given Lavoro’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lavoro is more favorable than Limoneira.

Profitability

This table compares Lavoro and Limoneira’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lavoro	N/A	N/A	N/A
Limoneira	-10.01%	-8.79%	-5.30%

Risk and Volatility

Lavoro has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Limoneira has a beta of 0.41, meaning that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lavoro and Limoneira”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lavoro	$9.08 billion	0.01	-$152.49 million	($1.63)	-0.28
Limoneira	$159.72 million	1.43	-$15.98 million	($0.93)	-13.58

Limoneira has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Lavoro. Limoneira is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lavoro, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

2.5% of Lavoro shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of Limoneira shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Limoneira 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.

About Lavoro

Lavoro Limited operates as an agricultural inputs retailer. The company operates through three segments: Brazil Cluster, LATAM Cluster, and Crop Care Cluster. It distributes agricultural inputs, such as crop protection, seeds, fertilizers, foliar fertilizers, biologicals, adjuvants, organominerals, and others for the agricultural industry. The company also produces specialty fertilizers, crop protection products, and biological crop inputs. It operates in Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay. The company sells its products through its physical stores and digital channel. Lavoro Limited was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

About Limoneira

Limoneira Company operates as an agribusiness and real estate development company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three divisions: Agribusiness, Rental Operations, and Real Estate Development. It grows, processes, packs, markets, and sells lemons. The company also grows avocado, oranges, and specialty citrus and other crops, including Moro blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Valencia oranges, Minneola tangelos, Star Ruby grapefruit, pummelos, and wine grapes. It has approximately 3,500 acres of lemons planted primarily in Ventura, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, and San Bernardino Counties in California; and Jujuy, Argentina, as well in Yuma County, Arizona, and La Serena, Chile; 1,200 acres of avocados planted in Ventura County; 100 acres of oranges planted in Tulare County, California; and 400 acres of specialty citrus and other crops. In addition, the company rents residential housing units and commercial office buildings, as well as leases approximately 400 acres of its land to third-party agricultural tenants. Further, it is involved in the organic recycling operations; and development of land parcels, multi-family housing, and single-family homes. The company markets and sells its lemons directly to food service, wholesale, and retail customers; avocados, oranges, specialty citrus, and other crops to third-party packinghouses; and wine grapes to wine producers. Limoneira Company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Santa Paula, California.