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3 Reasons to Avoid PPC and 1 Stock to Buy Instead

By: StockStory

PPC Cover Image

Over the past six months, Pilgrim's Pride’s shares (currently trading at $43.63) have posted a disappointing 12% loss, well below the S&P 500’s 15.9% gain. This might have investors contemplating their next move.

Is now the time to buy Pilgrim's Pride, or should you be careful about including it in your portfolio? Check out our in-depth research report to see what our analysts have to say, it’s free.

Why Is Pilgrim's Pride Not Exciting?

Despite the more favorable entry price, we're swiping left on Pilgrim's Pride for now. Here are three reasons we avoid PPC and a stock we'd rather own.

1. Long-Term Revenue Growth Disappoints

A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Unfortunately, Pilgrim's Pride’s 2.8% annualized revenue growth over the last three years was sluggish. This fell short of our benchmarks.

Pilgrim's Pride Quarterly Revenue

2. Projected Revenue Growth Shows Limited Upside

Forecasted revenues by Wall Street analysts signal a company’s potential. Predictions may not always be accurate, but accelerating growth typically boosts valuation multiples and stock prices while slowing growth does the opposite.

Over the next 12 months, sell-side analysts expect Pilgrim's Pride’s revenue to stall, a slight deceleration versus This projection doesn't excite us and suggests its products will face some demand challenges.

3. Low Gross Margin Reveals Weak Structural Profitability

All else equal, we prefer higher gross margins because they make it easier to generate more operating profits and indicate that a company commands pricing power by offering more differentiated products.

Pilgrim's Pride has bad unit economics for a consumer staples company, signaling it operates in a competitive market and lacks pricing power because its products can be substituted. As you can see below, it averaged a 11.8% gross margin over the last two years. That means Pilgrim's Pride paid its suppliers a lot of money ($88.19 for every $100 in revenue) to run its business. Pilgrim's Pride Trailing 12-Month Gross Margin

Final Judgment

Pilgrim's Pride isn’t a terrible business, but it doesn’t pass our quality test. Following the recent decline, the stock trades at 9.3× forward P/E (or $43.63 per share). While this valuation is optically cheap, the potential downside is big given its shaky fundamentals. We're pretty confident there are superior stocks to buy right now. We’d suggest looking at an all-weather company that owns household favorite Taco Bell.

Stocks We Like More Than Pilgrim's Pride

When Trump unveiled his aggressive tariff plan in April 2025, markets tanked as investors feared a full-blown trade war. But those who panicked and sold missed the subsequent rebound that’s already erased most losses.

Don’t let fear keep you from great opportunities and take a look at Top 6 Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025).

Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here.

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