Critical Comparison: Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO) and Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY)

Adecoagro (NYSE:AGRO) and Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Adecoagro and Lendway, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adecoagro	0	3	1	0	2.25
Lendway	0	0	0	0	0.00

Adecoagro presently has a consensus price target of $12.63, indicating a potential upside of 30.96%. Given Adecoagro’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Adecoagro is more favorable than Lendway.

Risk & Volatility

Adecoagro has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lendway has a beta of 1.9, meaning that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Adecoagro and Lendway”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adecoagro	$1.41 billion	0.71	$226.29 million	$1.50	6.43
Lendway	$31.58 million	0.28	$2.41 million	($1.98)	-2.53

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.3% of Adecoagro shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Lendway shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.7% of Adecoagro shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.2% of Lendway shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Adecoagro and Lendway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adecoagro	11.25%	10.14%	4.38%
Lendway	N/A	-21.56%	-4.32%

Summary

Adecoagro beats Lendway on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adecoagro

Adecoagro S.A. operates as an agro-industrial company in South America. The company mainly operates through three segments: Farming; Sugar, Ethanol and Energy; and Land Transformation. It engages in farming crops, rice and other agricultural products, dairy operations, and land transformation activities, as well as sugar, ethanol, and energy production activities. The company is involved in the planting, harvesting, and sale of grains, oilseeds, and fibers, including wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, sunflowers, and others; provision of grain warehousing/conditioning, handling, and drying services to third parties; and purchase and sale of crops produced by third parties. It also plants, harvests, processes, and markets rice; and produces and sells raw milk, UHT, cheese, and powder milk. In addition, the company engages in the cultivating and transforming of sugarcane into ethanol, sugar, and electricity. Further, it is involved in the identification and acquisition of underdeveloped and undermanaged farmland, and the realization of value through the strategic disposition of assets. Adecoagro S.A. was founded in 2002 and is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

About Lendway

Lendway, Inc. operates as a specialty agricultural and finance company focusing on making and managing its agricultural investments in the United States and internationally. It owns and operates FarmlandCredit.com, a non-bank lending business that seeks to purchase existing loans and/or originate and fund new loans domestically. The company was formerly known as Insignia Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Lendway, Inc. in August 2023. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.