Critical Survey: Calavo Growers (CVGW) versus Its Peers

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ:CVGW) is one of 38 public companies in the “AGRI OPERATIONS” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Calavo Growers to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Calavo Growers and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Calavo Growers	1.50%	11.79%	7.38%
Calavo Growers Competitors	-398.52%	-71.29%	-15.74%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Calavo Growers and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Calavo Growers	0	0	1	0	3.00
Calavo Growers Competitors	315	682	953	34	2.36

Calavo Growers presently has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 29.20%. As a group, “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies have a potential upside of 27.08%. Given Calavo Growers’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Calavo Growers is more favorable than its peers.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.3% of Calavo Growers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 46.3% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are held by institutional investors. 7.2% of Calavo Growers shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.8% of shares of all “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Calavo Growers and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Calavo Growers	$661.54 million	-$1.08 million	46.71
Calavo Growers Competitors	$5.33 billion	$126.40 million	7.95

Calavo Growers’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Calavo Growers. Calavo Growers is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Calavo Growers pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Calavo Growers pays out 137.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “AGRI OPERATIONS” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out -375.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Calavo Growers has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Calavo Growers lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

Calavo Growers has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Calavo Growers’ peers have a beta of 0.81, indicating that their average stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Calavo Growers beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Calavo Growers

Calavo Growers, Inc. markets and distributes avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods to retail grocery and foodservice customers, club stores, mass merchandisers, food distributors, and wholesale customers worldwide. It operates through Grown and Prepared segments. The Grown segment distributes tomatoes and papayas; and procures avocados grown in California, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. The Prepared segment is involved in the distribution of prepared avocado products, salsa, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, fresh prepared entrees salads, wraps, sandwiches, parfaits, and fresh snacking products, as well as ready-to-heat entrees, other hot bars and various deli items, meals kit components, and salad kits. It offers its products under the Calavo brands and related logos; and Avo Fresco, Bueno, Avo Fresco, Bueno, Calavo Gold, Celebrate the Taste, El Dorado, Taste of Paradise, The First Name in Avocados, The Family of Fresh, ProRipeVIP, RIPE NOW!, Renaissance Food Group, Garden Highway Fresh Cut, Garden Highway, and Garden Highway Chef Essentials trademarks. Calavo Growers, Inc. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Santa Paula, California.