Contrasting Seneca Foods (SENEA) & Its Peers

Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEA) is one of 328 public companies in the “Food Products” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Seneca Foods to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Seneca Foods and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Seneca Foods	0	1	1	0	2.50
Seneca Foods Competitors	2444	8288	8366	401	2.34

As a group, “Food Products” companies have a potential upside of 16.22%. Given Seneca Foods’ peers higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Seneca Foods has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Seneca Foods and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Seneca Foods	6.75%	14.96%	8.56%
Seneca Foods Competitors	-13.54%	-142.55%	-2.56%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

42.5% of Seneca Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.2% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by institutional investors. 8.2% of Seneca Foods shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.3% of shares of all “Food Products” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Seneca Foods and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Seneca Foods	$1.66 billion	$114.67 million	8.67
Seneca Foods Competitors	$6.82 billion	$700.97 million	-2,401.27

Seneca Foods’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Seneca Foods. Seneca Foods is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Seneca Foods has a beta of -0.03, suggesting that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Seneca Foods’ peers have a beta of -3.84, suggesting that their average stock price is 484% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Seneca Foods beats its peers on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

About Seneca Foods

Seneca Foods Corporation provides packaged fruits and vegetables in the United States and internationally. The company offers canned, frozen, and jarred produce; jarred fruit; and snack chips and other food products under the private label, as well as under various national and regional brands that the company owns or licenses, including Seneca, Libby’s, Aunt Nellie’s, Cherryman, Green Valley, and READ. In addition, it packs canned and frozen vegetables under contract packing agreements. Further, the company engages in the sale of cans, ends, and seeds, as well as trucking and aircraft operations. It provides its products to grocery outlets, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, limited assortment stores, club stores, and dollar stores; specialty retailers; and food service distributors, restaurant chains, industrial markets, other food packagers, and export customers in approximately 55 countries, as well as federal, state, and local governments for school and other feeding programs. Seneca Foods Corporation was incorporated in 1949 and is headquartered in Fairport, New York.