Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

Lancaster Colony (NASDAQ:LANC) and TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in LANC or THS?

66.4% of Lancaster Colony shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 29.5% of Lancaster Colony shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is LANC or THS more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 8.49% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of -0.72%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 19.01% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lancaster Colony	8.49%	19.01%	14.80%
TreeHouse Foods	-0.72%	5.94%	2.38%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, LANC or THS?

Lancaster Colony has higher earnings, but lower revenue than TreeHouse Foods. TreeHouse 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
Lancaster Colony	$1.87B	2.64	$158.61M	$5.78	31.06
TreeHouse Foods	$3.36B	0.52	$53.10M	-$0.47	-72.85

Which has more volatility and risk, LANC or THS?

Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer LANC or THS?

Lancaster Colony presently has a consensus price target of $193.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.80%. TreeHouse Foods has a consensus price target of $34.20, indicating a potential downside of 0.12%. Given Lancaster Colony's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Lancaster Colony is more favorable than TreeHouse Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lancaster Colony	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
TreeHouse Foods	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media prefer LANC or THS?

In the previous week, Lancaster Colony had 1 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Lancaster Colony and 14 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 0.48 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of -0.31 indicating that Lancaster Colony is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lancaster Colony	6 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
TreeHouse Foods	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LANC or THS?

TreeHouse Foods received 100 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.94% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote while only 62.54% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 389 62.54%	Underperform Votes 233 37.46%
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 64.94%	Underperform Votes 264 35.06%

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats TreeHouse Foods on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.