Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

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

Is LANC or HRL a better dividend stock?

Lancaster Colony pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Hormel Foods pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Lancaster Colony pays out 66.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hormel Foods pays out 84.7% 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 has raised its dividend for 62 consecutive years and Hormel Foods has raised its dividend for 59 consecutive years.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, LANC or HRL?

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
Lancaster Colony	$1.90B	2.56	$158.61M	$5.69	31.06
Hormel Foods	$11.91B	1.33	$805.04M	$1.37	21.03

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in LANC or HRL?

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

Does the media refer more to LANC or HRL?

In the previous week, Hormel Foods had 11 more articles in the media than Lancaster Colony. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Hormel Foods and 8 mentions for Lancaster Colony. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat Hormel Foods' score of 0.91 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)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Hormel Foods	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LANC or HRL?

Hormel Foods received 61 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 62.40% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote while only 57.38% of users gave Hormel Foods an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 390 62.40%	Underperform Votes 235 37.60%
Hormel Foods	Outperform Votes 451 57.38%	Underperform Votes 335 42.62%

Do analysts prefer LANC or HRL?

Lancaster Colony presently has a consensus target price of $211.33, suggesting a potential upside of 19.58%. Hormel Foods has a consensus target price of $31.80, suggesting a potential upside of 10.38%. Given Lancaster Colony's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Lancaster Colony is more favorable than Hormel Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lancaster Colony	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Hormel Foods	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Is LANC or HRL more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 8.26% compared to Hormel Foods' net margin of 6.75%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 19.51% beat Hormel Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lancaster Colony	8.26%	19.51%	15.19%
Hormel Foods	6.75%	10.95%	6.39%

Which has more volatility and risk, LANC or HRL?

Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.21, suggesting that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats Hormel Foods on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.