Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) & Hershey (NYSE:HSY) Critical Comparison

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) and Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Hershey and Vital Farms, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hershey	0	16	6	0	2.27
Vital Farms	1	8	5	0	2.29

Hershey presently has a consensus price target of $203.67, suggesting a potential upside of 25.23%. Vital Farms has a consensus price target of $17.18, suggesting a potential upside of 84.06%. Given Vital Farms’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vital Farms is more favorable than Hershey.

Risk and Volatility

Hershey has a beta of 0.1, indicating that its stock price is 90% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vital Farms has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hershey	12.24%	31.92%	10.71%
Vital Farms	0.02%	3.46%	2.25%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hershey and Vital Farms”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hershey	$11.69 billion	2.79	$883.26 million	$7.32	22.22
Vital Farms	$765.67 million	0.52	$66.28 million	($0.04)	-233.38

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

58.0% of Hershey shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.6% of Vital Farms shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Hershey shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of Vital Farms shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Hershey beats Vital Farms on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hershey

The Hershey Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of confectionery products and pantry items in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International. It offers chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products, including mints, chewing gums, and bubble gums; protein bars; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings, beverages, and sundae syrups; and snack items comprising spreads, bars, snack bites, mixes, popcorn, and pretzels. The company provides its products primarily under the Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses, Jolly Rancher, Almond Joy, Brookside, barkTHINS, Cadbury, Good & Plenty, Heath, Kit Kat, Payday, Rolo, Twizzlers, Whoppers, York, Ice Breakers, Breath Savers, Bubble Yum, Lily’s, SkinnyPop, Pirates Booty, Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels, and ONE Bar brands, as well as under the Pelon Pelo Rico, IO-IO, and Sofit brands. It markets and sells its products to wholesale distributors, chain grocery stores, mass merchandisers, chain drug stores, vending companies, wholesale clubs, convenience stores, dollar stores, concessionaires, and department stores. The company exports its products in approximately 80 countries worldwide. The Hershey Company was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

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.