Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) versus Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) Head to Head Review

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) and Utz Brands (NYSE:UTZ) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Vital Farms and Utz Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vital Farms	7.84%	18.40%	13.65%
Utz Brands	1.27%	7.81%	3.93%

Risk & Volatility

Vital Farms has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Utz Brands has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Vital Farms and Utz Brands”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vital Farms	$606.31 million	3.09	$53.39 million	$1.12	37.41
Utz Brands	$1.41 billion	1.24	$15.97 million	$0.21	58.81

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.6% of Vital Farms shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Utz Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.3% of Vital Farms shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.3% of Utz Brands shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Vital Farms and Utz Brands, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vital Farms	0	0	12	0	3.00
Utz Brands	0	2	5	0	2.71

Vital Farms currently has a consensus price target of $49.80, suggesting a potential upside of 18.85%. Utz Brands has a consensus price target of $17.29, suggesting a potential upside of 39.97%. Given Utz Brands’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Utz Brands is more favorable than Vital Farms.

Summary

Vital Farms beats Utz Brands on 10 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 Utz Brands

Utz Brands, Inc. engages in manufacture, marketing, and distribution of snack foods. It offers a range of salty snacks, including salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips, salsa and dips, ready-to-eat popcorn, and other snacks under the Utz, Zapp’s, ON THE BORDER, Golden Flake, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian, TORTIYAHS!, etc. The company sells its products to wholesale and other distributors, grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, discount stores, mass merchandisers, membership club stores, hard discounters, and specialty and e-commerce retailers. Utz Brands, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania.