Critical Comparison: Bioceres Crop Solutions (NASDAQ:BIOX) & Dole (NYSE:DOLE)

Bioceres Crop Solutions (NASDAQ:BIOX) and Dole (NYSE:DOLE) 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 dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Bioceres Crop Solutions has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dole has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

17.7% of Bioceres Crop Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Bioceres Crop Solutions and Dole, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bioceres Crop Solutions	1	2	1	0	2.00
Dole	1	3	0	0	1.75

Bioceres Crop Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1,042.53%. Dole has a consensus price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.93%. Given Bioceres Crop Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Bioceres Crop Solutions is more favorable than Dole.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bioceres Crop Solutions and Dole”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bioceres Crop Solutions	$333.30 million	0.07	-$55.42 million	($3.86)	-0.09
Dole	$9.17 billion	0.14	$51.32 million	$0.45	30.50

Dole has higher revenue and earnings than Bioceres Crop Solutions. Bioceres Crop Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Dole, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Bioceres Crop Solutions and Dole’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bioceres Crop Solutions	-92.85%	-33.97%	-10.31%
Dole	0.46%	7.63%	2.51%

Summary

Dole beats Bioceres Crop Solutions on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bioceres Crop Solutions

Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp., together with its subsidiaries, provides crop productivity solutions. It operates through Seed and Integrated Products, Crop Protection, and Crop Nutrition segments. The Seed and Integrated Products segment provides seed traits, germplasms, and seed treatment packs for healthier, and higher yielding crops. The Crop Protection segment develops, produces, and markets Rizoderma, adjuvants, therapies, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and baits. The Crop Nutrition segment develops, produces, commercializes, and sells inoculants, bio-inductors, and biological and microgranulated fertilizers. It also offers HB4, a drought tolerant seed technology program. The company operates in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Estonia, the United States, Paraguay, Russia, South Africa, France, Uruguay, and internationally. Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Rosario, Argentina.

About Dole

Dole Food Company, Inc. (Dole) is a producer, marketer and distributor of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. The Company is a producer of bananas and pineapples, and packaged fruit products, packaged salads and fresh-packed vegetables. The Company has three business segments: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and packaged foods. The fresh fruit segment contains operating divisions that produce and market fresh fruit to wholesale, retail and institutional customers worldwide. The fresh vegetables segment produces and markets fresh-packed and value-added vegetables and salads to wholesale, retail and institutional customers, primarily in North America and Europe. The packaged foods segment contains several operating divisions that produce and market packaged foods, including fruit, juices, frozen fruit and healthy snack foods. In November 2013, Dole Food Company, Inc announced that an investor group acquired the remaining 60.43% interest in the Company.