Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL) and Lancaster Colony (NASDAQ:LANC) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and media sentiment.

Is HRL or LANC more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 8.99% compared to Hormel Foods' net margin of 6.27%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 19.30% beat Hormel Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hormel Foods	6.27%	10.20%	6.11%
Lancaster Colony	8.99%	19.30%	15.03%

Is HRL or LANC a better dividend stock?

Hormel Foods pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Lancaster Colony pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Hormel Foods pays out 85.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lancaster Colony pays out 61.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hormel Foods has raised its dividend for 60 consecutive years and Lancaster Colony has raised its dividend for 62 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods presently has a consensus target price of $32.86, suggesting a potential upside of 9.91%. Lancaster Colony has a consensus target price of $203.50, suggesting a potential upside of 17.79%. Given Lancaster Colony's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lancaster Colony is more favorable than Hormel Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hormel Foods	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Lancaster Colony	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Do insiders & institutionals believe in HRL or LANC?

41.0% of Hormel Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.4% of Lancaster Colony shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Hormel Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.5% of Lancaster Colony shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.33, indicating that its stock price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its stock price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Lancaster Colony. Hormel Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lancaster Colony, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hormel Foods	$11.92B	1.38	$805.04M	$1.36	21.98
Lancaster Colony	$1.87B	2.54	$158.61M	$6.15	28.09

Does the media prefer HRL or LANC?

In the previous week, Hormel Foods had 11 more articles in the media than Lancaster Colony. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Hormel Foods and 1 mentions for Lancaster Colony. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.89 beat Hormel Foods' score of 1.24 indicating that Lancaster Colony is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Hormel Foods	Positive
Lancaster Colony	Very Positive

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats Hormel Foods on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.