Alico (NASDAQ:ALCO) vs. Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) Critical Survey

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) and Alico (NASDAQ:ALCO) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.4% of Darling Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.3% of Alico shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Darling Ingredients shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.7% of Alico shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Darling Ingredients has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alico has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Darling Ingredients and Alico’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Darling Ingredients	9.13%	12.98%	6.08%
Alico	8.98%	-20.77%	-11.09%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Darling Ingredients and Alico”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Darling Ingredients	$6.14 billion	1.68	$62.80 million	$3.71	17.63
Alico	$17.07 million	17.00	-$147.33 million	$0.22	177.77

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Darling Ingredients and Alico, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Darling Ingredients	0	2	10	1	2.92
Alico	0	1	1	1	3.00

Darling Ingredients currently has a consensus target price of $69.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.50%. Alico has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 15.06%. Given Alico’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alico is more favorable than Darling Ingredients.

Summary

Darling Ingredients beats Alico on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc. develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries. The company also collects and transforms various animal by-product streams into useable and specialty ingredients, such as collagen, edible fats, feed-grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, organic fertilizers, yellow grease, fuel feedstock, green energy, natural casings, and hides. In addition, it recovers and converts used cooking oil and animal fats, and residual bakery products into valuable feed and fuel ingredients. Further, the company provides environmental services, including grease trap collection and disposal services to food service establishments. It primarily operates under the Rendac, Sonac, FASA, Ecoson, Rousselot, Gelnex, and CTH brand names. The company was formerly known as Darling International Inc. and changed its name to Darling Ingredients Inc. in May 2014. Darling Ingredients Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.

About Alico

Alico, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an agribusiness and land management company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Alico Citrus, and Land Management and Other Operations. The Alico Citrus segment engages in planting, owning, cultivating, and/or managing citrus groves to produce fruit for sale to fresh and processed citrus markets, including activities related to the purchase and resale of fruit and value-added services, which include contracting for the harvesting, marketing, and hauling of citrus. The Land Management and Other Operations segment is involved in the activities related to native plant sales, grazing and hunting leasing, management, and/or conservation of unimproved native pastureland; and activities related to rock mining royalties and other insignificant lines of business, as well as in the activities related to owning and/or leasing improved farmland. The company was incorporated in 1960 and is based in Fort Myers, Florida.