Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL – Get Free Report) and Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR – Get Free Report) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
98.6% of Vital Farms shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Vital Farms shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Darling Ingredients shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent recommendations for Vital Farms and Darling Ingredients, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Vital Farms | 1 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 2.29 |
| Darling Ingredients | 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 2.92 |
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Vital Farms and Darling Ingredients”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Vital Farms | $765.67 million | 0.57 | $66.28 million | ($0.04) | -252.00 |
| Darling Ingredients | $6.14 billion | 1.72 | $62.80 million | $3.71 | 18.07 |
Vital Farms has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Darling Ingredients. Vital Farms is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Darling Ingredients, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
Vital Farms has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Vital Farms and Darling Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Vital Farms | 0.02% | 3.46% | 2.25% |
| Darling Ingredients | 9.13% | 12.98% | 6.08% |
Summary
Darling Ingredients beats Vital Farms on 10 of the 15 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 Darling Ingredients
Darling Ingredients Inc. develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries. The company also collects and transforms various animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as collagen, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstock, green energy, natural casings, and hides. In addition, it recovers and converts used cooking oil and animal fats, and residual bakery products into valuable feed and fuel ingredients. Further, the company provides environmental services, including grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. It primarily operates under the Rendac, Sonac, FASA, Ecoson, Rousselot, Gelnex, and CTH brand names. The company was formerly known as Darling International Inc. and changed its name to Darling Ingredients Inc. in May 2014. Darling Ingredients Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.
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