Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ:RKDA) vs. Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY) Critical Analysis

Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY) and Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ:RKDA) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Lendway and Arcadia Biosciences, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lendway	0	0	0	0	0.00
Arcadia Biosciences	0	0	1	1	3.50

Arcadia Biosciences has a consensus price target of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 111.57%. Given Arcadia Biosciences’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Arcadia Biosciences is more favorable than Lendway.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lendway and Arcadia Biosciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lendway	$31.58 million	0.21	$2.41 million	($1.98)	-1.90
Arcadia Biosciences	$5.05 million	0.77	-$13.98 million	($4.28)	-0.66

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

Volatility and Risk

Lendway has a beta of 1.97, suggesting that its share price is 97% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Arcadia Biosciences has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Lendway and Arcadia Biosciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lendway	N/A	-21.56%	-4.32%
Arcadia Biosciences	-110.61%	-52.63%	-34.57%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

6.6% of Lendway shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.7% of Arcadia Biosciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.2% of Lendway shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Arcadia Biosciences shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Lendway beats Arcadia Biosciences on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Arcadia Biosciences

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. produces and markets plant-based food and beverage products in the United States. The company develops crop improvements primarily in wheat to enhance farm economics by improving the performance of crops in the field, as well as their value as food ingredients. Its food, beverage, and body case products include GoodWheat, Zola coconut water, ProVault topical pain relief, and SoulSpring. The company was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.