Lifeway Foods (LWAY) Competitors

TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) and Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:LWAY) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, media sentiment and valuation.

Do analysts recommend THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods currently has a consensus price target of $31.67, suggesting a potential upside of 42.02%. Lifeway Foods has a consensus price target of $26.50, suggesting a potential upside of 10.55%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe TreeHouse Foods is more favorable than Lifeway Foods.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TreeHouse Foods	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Lifeway Foods	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is THS or LWAY more profitable?

Lifeway Foods has a net margin of 7.23% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of 0.80%. Lifeway Foods' return on equity of 19.97% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	0.80%	6.42%	2.54%
Lifeway Foods	7.23%	19.97%	15.44%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods received 184 more outperform votes than Lifeway Foods when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.59% of users gave Lifeway Foods an outperform vote while only 63.75% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 63.75%	Underperform Votes 278 36.25%
Lifeway Foods	Outperform Votes 305 66.59%	Underperform Votes 153 33.41%

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods has higher revenue and earnings than Lifeway Foods. Lifeway Foods is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than TreeHouse Foods, 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
TreeHouse Foods	$3.35B	0.33	$26.90M	$0.54	41.29
Lifeway Foods	$186.82M	1.95	$11.37M	$0.59	40.63

Which has more risk and volatility, THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to THS or LWAY?

In the previous week, TreeHouse Foods had 17 more articles in the media than Lifeway Foods. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for TreeHouse Foods and 5 mentions for Lifeway Foods. Lifeway Foods' average media sentiment score of 0.49 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of 0.14 indicating that Lifeway Foods is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TreeHouse Foods	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Lifeway Foods	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in THS or LWAY?

99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.4% of Lifeway Foods shares are held by institutional investors. 11.1% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.9% of Lifeway Foods 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.

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats TreeHouse Foods on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.