Contrasting Cibus (NASDAQ:CBUS) and Origin Agritech (NASDAQ:SEED)

Cibus (NASDAQ:CBUS) and Origin Agritech (NASDAQ:SEED) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Cibus and Origin Agritech, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cibus	1	0	2	0	2.33
Origin Agritech	1	0	0	0	1.00

Cibus currently has a consensus target price of $21.25, indicating a potential upside of 1,345.58%. Given Cibus’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Cibus is more favorable than Origin Agritech.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

33.8% of Cibus shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.7% of Origin Agritech shares are held by institutional investors. 31.2% of Cibus shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.4% of Origin Agritech shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Cibus has a beta of 1.72, suggesting that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Origin Agritech has a beta of 1.71, suggesting that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Cibus and Origin Agritech”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cibus	$4.26 million	18.72	-$251.39 million	($10.45)	-0.14
Origin Agritech	$93.68 million	0.11	$2.95 million	N/A	N/A

Origin Agritech has higher revenue and earnings than Cibus.

Profitability

This table compares Cibus and Origin Agritech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cibus	-5,681.55%	-83.67%	-20.85%
Origin Agritech	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Cibus beats Origin Agritech on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cibus

Cibus, Inc., a agricultural biotechnology company, develops and licenses plant traits to seed companies for royalties. The company primarily focus on trait productivity in two areas, including productivity traits that enable farmers to have higher yields and reduce the use of the crop protection chemicals and fertilizers; and sustainable ingredients that enable corporations to replace ingredients that are fossil fuel based or whose production results in increased greenhouse gases. Cibus, Inc. is based in San Diego, California.

About Origin Agritech

Origin Agritech Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an agricultural biotechnology in the People’s Republic of China. The company engages in the development and distribution of seed products; and research on genetically enhanced breeding technologies in agricultural crops. Its products include corn, soybean, canola, and rice seeds. The company is also involved in the development, production, and distribution of hybrid crop seeds, as well as develops hybrid seed technology. In addition, it operates an e-commerce platform. The company has a collaboration agreement with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Maize Improvement Center, Henan Agriculture University, China Agricultural University, and Zhejiang University for seed genetic modifications and biotechnologies. Origin Agritech Limited was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.