Reviewing Village Farms International (NASDAQ:VFF) & Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY)

Village Farms International (NASDAQ:VFF) and Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Village Farms International and Lendway, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Village Farms International	0	0	1	0	3.00
Lendway	0	0	0	0	0.00

Village Farms International presently has a consensus target price of $1.20, suggesting a potential upside of 66.67%. Given Village Farms International’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Village Farms International is more favorable than Lendway.

Risk & Volatility

Village Farms International has a beta of 2.18, indicating that its stock price is 118% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lendway has a beta of 1.9, indicating that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Village Farms International and Lendway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Village Farms International	-15.16%	-8.26%	-5.37%
Lendway	N/A	-21.56%	-4.32%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.1% of Village Farms International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Lendway shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.5% of Village Farms International shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.2% of Lendway shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Village Farms International and Lendway”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Village Farms International	$327.85 million	0.25	-$31.80 million	($0.45)	-1.60
Lendway	$31.58 million	0.26	$2.41 million	($1.98)	-2.37

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

Summary

Village Farms International beats Lendway on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Village Farms International

Village Farms International, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, and sells greenhouse-grown tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers in North America. It operates through four segments: Produce, Cannabis-Canada, Cannabis-U.S., and Energy. The company also produces and supplies cannabis products to other licensed providers and provincial governments in Canada and internationally; develops and sells cannabinoid-based health and wellness products, including ingestible, edibles, and topical applications; and produces power. It markets and distributes its products under the Village Farms brand name to retail supermarkets and fresh food distribution companies, as well as products produced under exclusive and non-exclusive arrangements from greenhouse supply partners. The company was formerly known as Village Farms Canada Inc. and changed its name to Village Farms International, Inc. in December 2009. Village Farms International, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Delta, Canada.

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.