Freshpet (FRPT) Competitors

Vital Farms (NASDAQ:VITL) and Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Is VITL or FRPT more profitable?

Vital Farms has a net margin of 7.84% compared to Freshpet's net margin of 3.23%. Vital Farms' return on equity of 18.40% beat Freshpet's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vital Farms	7.84%	18.40%	13.65%
Freshpet	3.23%	4.82%	3.21%

Which has more volatility & risk, VITL or FRPT?

Vital Farms has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freshpet has a beta of 1.77, suggesting that its share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend VITL or FRPT?

Vital Farms currently has a consensus target price of $48.20, indicating a potential downside of 5.38%. Freshpet has a consensus target price of $109.29, indicating a potential upside of 74.52%. Given Freshpet's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Freshpet is more favorable than Vital Farms.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vital Farms	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Freshpet	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Do institutionals & insiders believe in VITL or FRPT?

98.6% of Vital Farms shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.3% of Vital Farms shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Freshpet shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has better earnings & valuation, VITL or FRPT?

Vital Farms has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Freshpet. Vital Farms is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Freshpet, 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
Vital Farms	$606.31M	3.75	$53.39M	$1.12	45.48
Freshpet	$975.18M	3.13	$46.92M	$0.67	93.46

Does the media prefer VITL or FRPT?

In the previous week, Freshpet had 6 more articles in the media than Vital Farms. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Freshpet and 13 mentions for Vital Farms. Vital Farms' average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat Freshpet's score of 1.15 indicating that Vital Farms is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Vital Farms	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Freshpet	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Vital Farms beats Freshpet on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.