Head to Head Contrast: Verde Clean Fuels (NASDAQ:VGAS) & Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO)

Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO – Get Rating) and Verde Clean Fuels (NASDAQ:VGAS – Get Rating) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Alto Ingredients and Verde Clean Fuels, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alto Ingredients	0	0	1	0	3.00
Verde Clean Fuels	0	0	0	0	N/A

Alto Ingredients presently has a consensus target price of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 220.20%. Given Alto Ingredients’ higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Alto Ingredients is more favorable than Verde Clean Fuels.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

52.2% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Verde Clean Fuels shares are held by institutional investors. 3.4% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by company 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 Alto Ingredients and Verde Clean Fuels’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alto Ingredients	-3.89%	-20.64%	-13.95%
Verde Clean Fuels	N/A	-144.01%	-1.99%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Alto Ingredients and Verde Clean Fuels’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alto Ingredients	$1.34 billion	0.11	-$41.60 million	($0.74)	-2.74
Verde Clean Fuels	N/A	N/A	-$3.70 million	N/A	N/A

Verde Clean Fuels has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alto Ingredients.

Volatility and Risk

Alto Ingredients has a beta of 2.38, suggesting that its share price is 138% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Verde Clean Fuels has a beta of -0.17, suggesting that its share price is 117% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Alto Ingredients beats Verde Clean Fuels on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alto Ingredients

(Get Rating)

Alto Ingredients, Inc. engages in the production and marketing of specialty alcohols and essential ingredients. It operates through the following segments: Marketing and Distribution, Pekin Production, and Other Production. The Marketing and Distribution segment includes marketing and merchant trading for company-produced alcohols and essential ingredients, on an aggregated basis, and third-party fuel-grade ethanol. The Pekin Campus Production segment deals with the production and sale of alcohols and essential ingredients produced at the company’s Pekin, Illinois campus. The Other Production segment covers the production and sale of fuel-grade ethanol and essential ingredients produced at all of the company’s other production facilities on an aggregated basis. The company was founded by William L. Jones and Neil M. Koehler on January 30, 2003 and is headquartered in Pekin, IL.

About Verde Clean Fuels

(Get Rating)

CENAQ Energy Corp. entered definitive business combination agreement with Bluescape Clean Fuels Intermediate Holdings, LLC.