CALM vs JBS: How Cal-Maine Foods and JBS N.V. Compare (2026)

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. CALM and JBS share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined CALM and JBS exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Cal-Maine Foods is the largest producer of shell eggs in the United States by volume. The company sells approximately 1 billion dozen eggs annually, representing approximately 20% of US shell egg sales. Cal-Maine sells through grocery retailers, foodservice distributors, and other commercial customers, primarily across the southwestern and central US.

Full CALM guide

JBS processes and sells animal protein at a scale nobody else matches: beef, pork, chicken and lamb, slaughtered and packed in more than a dozen countries and shipped to roughly 180. The operating structure is really six businesses under one roof. JBS Beef North America is the largest by revenue (about $7.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026), followed by Pilgrim's Pride, the US chicken company JBS controls with a stake above 80% and which trades separately as PPC, then JBS Brazil, Seara (branded and prepared foods in Brazil, the highest-margin unit), JBS USA Pork and JBS Australia. Brands include Friboi, Swift, Seara, Moy Park, Primo and Pilgrim's. Revenue was about $86.2 billion in 2025 and roughly $88 billion over the trailing twelve months, which makes JBS one of the largest food companies on earth by sales and one of the smallest by market value relative to those sales, at around $15 billion.

Full JBS guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• CALM drivers: Avian influenza and supply disruption; Cage-free transition.
• JBS drivers: Protein and geographic diversification as a built-in hedge; A cattle cycle that mathematically has to turn.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Avian influenza could eventually impact Cal-Maine facilities, creating direct production losses. For JBS, this is a commodity processor, so margins are set by the spread between livestock costs and meat prices, and JBS controls neither.

Pick CALM if you believe its drivers more; JBS if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the CALM and JBS guides.

CALM. Cal-Maine's valuation analysis is dominated by cyclical considerations. Trailing P/E is uninformative because earnings swing materially with egg prices. Normalized earnings analysis (looking at average earnings across a full price cycle) is more useful. The dividend is formula-based and tracks earnings.

JBS. JBS screens as one of the cheapest large food companies in the world on earnings and almost absurdly cheap on sales, but both readings need context. The trailing multiple sits on earnings that already absorb a loss-making US beef unit, so it is neither a peak nor a clean trough number, and the sub-0.2x sales ratio reflects packing economics where a 5% EBITDA margin is a normal outcome rather than a distressed one. Screens quoting a double-digit dividend yield are counting two US$1.00 distributions inside the trailing twelve months. As of early August 2026, roughly 15 covering analysts carried an average twelve-month target near $18, implying meaningful upside if the cattle cycle turns on schedule, and the Q2 2026 report on August 10 is the next test of that timing.

Headline figures (approximate, early 2026): CALM shows revenue (ttm) ~$3 billion (varies materially with egg prices), operating margin Highly cyclical, 5-40% across cycles, net income (ttm) Highly cyclical, depends on price environment, eps (ttm) Cyclical; JBS shows revenue (ttm) ~$88 billion, after ~$86.2 billion in FY2025 (+11.7%), q1 2026 results ~$21.6 billion revenue (+11%), ~$1.13 billion adjusted EBITDA (5.2% margin), ~$221 million net income, net income / eps (ttm) ~$1.74 billion, ~$1.62 per share, price / market cap ~$13.70 a share, ~$15 billion, inside a 52-week range of ~$11.49 to ~$18.65.

CALM and JBS are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined CALM and JBS exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.