SunOpta (STKL) Competitors

Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ:CENT) and SunOpta (NASDAQ:STKL) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, community ranking, risk, media sentiment, profitability and institutional ownership.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in CENT or STKL?

16.1% of Central Garden & Pet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.4% of SunOpta shares are held by institutional investors. 8.2% of Central Garden & Pet shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of SunOpta shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, CENT or STKL?

Central Garden & Pet has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SunOpta has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better valuation and earnings, CENT or STKL?

Central Garden & Pet has higher revenue and earnings than SunOpta. SunOpta is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Central Garden & Pet, 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
Central Garden & Pet	$3.16B	0.74	$107.98M	$1.87	18.99
SunOpta	$740.93M	0.96	-$175.02M	-$0.13	-46.62

Is CENT or STKL more profitable?

Central Garden & Pet has a net margin of 3.77% compared to SunOpta's net margin of -2.74%. Central Garden & Pet's return on equity of 10.08% beat SunOpta's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Central Garden & Pet	3.77%	10.08%	4.38%
SunOpta	-2.74%	7.92%	1.89%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CENT or STKL?

SunOpta received 284 more outperform votes than Central Garden & Pet when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.42% of users gave SunOpta an outperform vote while only 59.95% of users gave Central Garden & Pet an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Central Garden & Pet	Outperform Votes 256 59.95%	Underperform Votes 171 40.05%
SunOpta	Outperform Votes 540 67.42%	Underperform Votes 261 32.58%

Does the media favor CENT or STKL?

In the previous week, SunOpta had 2 more articles in the media than Central Garden & Pet. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for SunOpta and 2 mentions for Central Garden & Pet. SunOpta's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat Central Garden & Pet's score of 0.94 indicating that SunOpta is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Central Garden & Pet	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SunOpta	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend CENT or STKL?

Central Garden & Pet presently has a consensus price target of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.61%. SunOpta has a consensus price target of $9.50, suggesting a potential upside of 56.77%. Given SunOpta's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SunOpta is more favorable than Central Garden & Pet.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Central Garden & Pet	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
SunOpta	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Summary

SunOpta beats Central Garden & Pet on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.