Freshpet (FRPT) Competitors

Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) and Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, profitability and risk.

Is FRPT or VITL more profitable?

Vital Farms has a net margin of 7.84% compared to Freshpet's net margin of 3.23%. Vital Farms' return on equity of 18.40% beat Freshpet's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Freshpet	3.23%	4.82%	3.21%
Vital Farms	7.84%	18.40%	13.65%

Does the media refer more to FRPT or VITL?

In the previous week, Freshpet had 5 more articles in the media than Vital Farms. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Freshpet and 14 mentions for Vital Farms. Vital Farms' average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Freshpet's score of 1.17 indicating that Vital Farms is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Freshpet	12 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Vital Farms	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in FRPT or VITL?

98.6% of Vital Farms shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of Freshpet shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.3% of Vital Farms shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, FRPT or VITL?

Freshpet has a beta of 1.77, indicating that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vital Farms has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer FRPT or VITL?

Freshpet currently has a consensus price target of $109.29, suggesting a potential upside of 74.52%. Vital Farms has a consensus price target of $48.20, suggesting a potential downside of 5.38%. Given Freshpet's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Freshpet is more favorable than Vital Farms.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Freshpet	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Vital Farms	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, FRPT or VITL?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Freshpet	$975.18M	3.13	$46.92M	$0.67	93.46
Vital Farms	$657.95M	3.46	$53.39M	$1.12	45.48

Summary

Vital Farms beats Freshpet on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.