Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

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

Which has more risk & volatility, LANC or HRL?

Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.36, indicating that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is LANC or HRL 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
Lancaster Colony	8.49%	19.01%	14.80%
Hormel Foods	6.75%	10.95%	6.39%

Does the media prefer LANC or HRL?

In the previous week, Hormel Foods had 16 more articles in the media than Lancaster Colony. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Hormel Foods and 2 mentions for Lancaster Colony. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.54 beat Hormel Foods' score of 0.29 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	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Hormel Foods	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LANC or HRL?

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

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

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

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 $1.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Lancaster Colony pays out 65.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hormel Foods pays out 77.4% 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 increased its dividend for 62 consecutive years and Hormel Foods has increased its dividend for 60 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer LANC or HRL?

Lancaster Colony currently has a consensus target price of $211.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.61%. Hormel Foods has a consensus target price of $31.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.56%. Given Lancaster Colony's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly 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)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Hormel Foods	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83

Which has better earnings & valuation, 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	$1.87B	2.52	$158.61M	$5.78	29.60
Hormel Foods	$11.92B	1.38	$805.04M	$1.46	20.50

Summary

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