SunOpta (STKL) Competitors

SunOpta (NASDAQ:STKL) and Universal (NYSE:UVV) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer STKL or UVV?

SunOpta received 355 more outperform votes than Universal when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.02% of users gave SunOpta an outperform vote while only 58.33% of users gave Universal an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
SunOpta	Outperform Votes 537 69.02%	Underperform Votes 241 30.98%
Universal	Outperform Votes 182 58.33%	Underperform Votes 130 41.67%

Do analysts prefer STKL or UVV?

SunOpta currently has a consensus price target of $9.40, indicating a potential upside of 59.86%. Given SunOpta's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe SunOpta is more favorable than Universal.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SunOpta	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Universal	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A

Which has more risk and volatility, STKL or UVV?

SunOpta has a beta of 1.73, suggesting that its stock price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Universal has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better earnings and valuation, STKL or UVV?

Universal has higher revenue and earnings than SunOpta. SunOpta is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Universal, 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
SunOpta	$630.30M	1.10	-$175.02M	-$1.53	-3.84
Universal	$2.57B	0.47	$124.05M	$5.31	9.30

Is STKL or UVV more profitable?

Universal has a net margin of 4.98% compared to SunOpta's net margin of -22.85%. Universal's return on equity of 7.46% beat SunOpta's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SunOpta	-22.85%	4.05%	1.24%
Universal	4.98%	7.46%	3.81%

Does the media prefer STKL or UVV?

In the previous week, SunOpta and SunOpta both had 1 articles in the media. Universal's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat SunOpta's score of 0.00 indicating that Universal is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
SunOpta	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Universal	0 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 hold more shares of STKL or UVV?

85.4% of SunOpta shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.0% of Universal shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of SunOpta shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Universal shares are owned 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.

Summary

SunOpta and Universal tied by winning 8 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.