Why Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (CALM) is Among the Best Agriculture Stocks to Buy Right Now

Yahoo

10-05-2025

We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) stands against other best agriculture stocks to buy now.
On April 28, CNBC reported that while other US sectors are nearing what President Trump's Treasury secretary Scott Bessent calls 'an unsustainable tariff war', the American farming sector has started to bear the effects of the economic crisis, with the damage already done. American agricultural exporters believe that the global backlash to tariffs imposed by Trump is punishing them, especially through a decrease in Chinese purchasing of US products. This trend is resulting in canceled export orders and layoffs.
Data from the US Department of Agriculture shows that China canceled its biggest pork orders since 2020, stopping the shipment of 12,000 tons of pork. CNBC reported that Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), a leading export trade group for farmers, opined that calling the number of canceled orders of US agricultural products could not be called 'approaching a crisis', as 'it is a full-blown crisis already.'
AgTC also reported that its members are experiencing 'massive' financial losses because of the trade war, based on the reports sent by member companies. A wood pulp and paperboard reported to AgTC the hold or immediate cancellation of 6,400 metric tons in a warehouse. It said that 9,000 metric tons of the product are already on their way to China through water, with the estimated arrival time being May 13. Chinese buyers may refuse to accept these shipments and abandon them at the port, which is why the threat of costly diversion to Chinese or other bonded warehouses looms over the journey.
READ ALSO: and 11 Most Promising Future Stocks According to Hedge Funds.
China-to-US vessel traffic has also seen a steep decline. CNBC reported that according to the Vizion Global Ocean Bookings Tracker, the traffic is down 22.15% week-over-week and 44% year-over-year through April 14. Ben Tracy, Vizion's vice president of strategic business development, said the following about the situation:
'What we've seen in the last two weeks is a continued correction in booking demand for US imports, especially US imports from China. We are now seeing this translate to a drop in departures as well.'
Agricultural exporters opined that no other global markets hold the potential to swiftly replace China's demand and absorb the volume. These trends are already affecting operations and prices. CNBC reported that a lumber exporter told AgTC that some products have already fallen 20% in market value, which will likely impact future investments and inventory planning.
'The U.S. market was stable and improving, but now awash with inventory of former China products,' it said. 'We have diverted employees and production to other (less profitable) production and dramatically slowed down purchasing from independent vendors (loggers, truckers, sawmills).'
We sifted through stock screeners, financial media reports, and ETFs to compile a list of 30 agriculture stocks and chose the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey's database. The list is ordered in ascending order of the number of hedge funds as of fiscal Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
A close-up of an organic egg being carefully washed and inspected before being packaged.Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) produces, packages, grades, markets, and distributes shell eggs. To support its operations, it operates processing plants, farms, feed mills, warehouses, hatcheries, and other properties. The company markets its products to regional grocery store chains, food service distributors, club stores, and egg product manufacturers.
On May 5, BMO Capital initiated coverage of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) with a Market Perform rating. The analyst's $100 price target implied an upside of 8% from its share price. The firm expects a normalization in earnings after the company's record fiscal Q3 due to lower commodity egg prices. The analyst told investors in a research note that while this situation creates a 'tough setup' for investment in the shares at these levels, BMO forecasts 'higher-for-longer' earnings through fiscal 2026.
The company reported positive fiscal Q3 2025 results, with quarterly net sales reaching $1.4 billion and net income of $508.5 million. Strong consumer demand during the quarter resulted in a record number of total dozens sold. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) also underwent a 24% increase in total chicks hatched during fiscal Q3 2025 compared to the same quarter last year.
It expects ongoing expansion projects worth around $60 million to be completed in 2025, adding approximately 1.1 million cage-free layer hens and 250,000 pullets to the company's operations.
Overall, CALM ranks 7th on our list of best agriculture stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential for CALM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CALM but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.