TreeHouse Foods (THS) Competitors

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

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

99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.4% of Lancaster Colony shares are held by institutional investors. 11.1% of TreeHouse 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 large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, THS or LANC?

Lancaster Colony has lower revenue, but higher earnings than TreeHouse Foods. Lancaster Colony 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	0.35	$26.90M	$0.54	43.54
Lancaster Colony	$1.90B	2.71	$158.61M	$5.69	32.86

Do analysts rate THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods presently has a consensus price target of $31.67, indicating a potential upside of 34.69%. Lancaster Colony has a consensus price target of $211.33, indicating a potential upside of 13.02%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe TreeHouse Foods is more favorable than Lancaster Colony.

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
Lancaster Colony	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Does the media favor THS or LANC?

In the previous week, TreeHouse Foods had 9 more articles in the media than Lancaster Colony. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for TreeHouse Foods and 13 mentions for Lancaster Colony. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.44 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of 0.14 indicating that Lancaster Colony 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
Lancaster Colony	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods received 99 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.75% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote while only 62.40% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 63.75%	Underperform Votes 278 36.25%
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 390 62.40%	Underperform Votes 235 37.60%

Is THS or LANC more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 8.26% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of 0.80%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 19.51% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	0.80%	6.42%	2.54%
Lancaster Colony	8.26%	19.51%	15.19%

Which has more volatility and risk, THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats TreeHouse Foods on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.