Freshpet - FRPT Competitors

Post (NYSE:POST) and Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, community ranking, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in POST or FRPT?

Freshpet received 44 more outperform votes than Post when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.55% of users gave Post an outperform vote while only 62.69% of users gave Freshpet an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Post	Outperform Votes 408 67.55%	Underperform Votes 196 32.45%
Freshpet	Outperform Votes 452 62.69%	Underperform Votes 269 37.31%

Does the media refer more to POST or FRPT?

In the previous week, Post had 8 more articles in the media than Freshpet. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Post and 4 mentions for Freshpet. Freshpet's average media sentiment score of 0.57 beat Post's score of -0.14 indicating that Freshpet is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Post	1 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Freshpet	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in POST or FRPT?

91.4% of Post shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.6% of Post shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of Freshpet shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts rate POST or FRPT?

Post presently has a consensus price target of $99.14, suggesting a potential upside of 9.79%. Freshpet has a consensus price target of $75.50, suggesting a potential upside of 16.75%. Given Freshpet's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Freshpet is more favorable than Post.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Post	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Freshpet	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.79

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, POST or FRPT?

Post has higher revenue and earnings than Freshpet. Freshpet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Post, 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
Post	$5.85 billion	0.91	$756.60 million	$13.96	6.47
Freshpet	$595.34 million	5.22	-$59.49 million	-$1.30	-49.75

Which has more volatility and risk, POST or FRPT?

Post has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freshpet has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Is POST or FRPT more profitable?

Post has a net margin of 14.30% compared to Freshpet's net margin of -9.99%. Post's return on equity of 5.36% beat Freshpet's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Post	14.30%	5.36%	1.58%
Freshpet	-9.99%	-6.26%	-5.51%

Summary

Post beats Freshpet on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.