TreeHouse Foods (THS) Competitors

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

Do analysts rate THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods presently has a consensus target price of $38.40, suggesting a potential upside of 8.63%. Lancaster Colony has a consensus target price of $198.75, suggesting a potential upside of 3.78%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly 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)	5 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 MarketBeat Community favor THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods received 102 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.73% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote while only 63.24% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 65.73%	Underperform Votes 255 34.27%
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 387 63.24%	Underperform Votes 225 36.76%

Which has more volatility and risk, THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.35, indicating that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lancaster Colony has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer THS or LANC?

In the previous week, Lancaster Colony had 3 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Lancaster Colony and 6 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of 0.82 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	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lancaster Colony	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is THS or LANC more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 7.10% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of 0.76%. Lancaster Colony's return on equity of 18.96% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	0.76%	5.81%	2.32%
Lancaster Colony	7.10%	18.96%	14.80%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, 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	$3.43B	0.54	$53.10M	$0.46	76.85
Lancaster Colony	$1.82B	2.89	$111.29M	$4.82	39.73

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of 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. 0.9% of TreeHouse Foods shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.6% 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 company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats TreeHouse Foods on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.