Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

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

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, 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	1.46	$805.04M	$1.46	21.70
Lancaster Colony	$1.88B	2.65	$158.61M	$5.78	31.26

Is HRL or LANC more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 8.49% compared to Hormel Foods' net margin of 6.75%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 19.01% beat Hormel Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hormel Foods	6.75%	10.95%	6.39%
Lancaster Colony	8.49%	19.01%	14.80%

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 3.7%. Lancaster Colony pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Hormel Foods pays out 79.5% 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 65.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lancaster Colony has increased its dividend for 62 consecutive years.

Does the media refer more to HRL or LANC?

In the previous week, Hormel Foods had 6 more articles in the media than Lancaster Colony. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Hormel Foods and 4 mentions for Lancaster Colony. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat Hormel Foods' score of 0.90 indicating that Lancaster Colony is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hormel Foods	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lancaster Colony	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods received 61 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.54% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote while only 57.47% of users gave Hormel Foods an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hormel Foods	Outperform Votes 450 57.47%	Underperform Votes 333 42.53%
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 389 62.54%	Underperform Votes 233 37.46%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of 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 endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.26, meaning that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend HRL or LANC?

Hormel Foods presently has a consensus target price of $31.29, indicating a potential downside of 1.24%. Lancaster Colony has a consensus target price of $211.50, indicating a potential upside of 17.05%. Given Lancaster Colony's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Lancaster Colony is more favorable than Hormel Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hormel Foods	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86
Lancaster Colony	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats Hormel Foods on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.