Lancaster Colony (LANC) Competitors

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

Do analysts recommend THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods presently has a consensus target price of $46.67, indicating a potential upside of 27.92%. Lancaster Colony has a consensus target price of $198.75, indicating a potential upside of 4.66%. Given Lancaster Colony's higher possible upside, equities research 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 media prefer THS or LANC?

In the previous week, Lancaster Colony had 5 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Lancaster Colony and 2 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. Lancaster Colony's average media sentiment score of 0.84 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of 0.32 indicating that TreeHouse Foods is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TreeHouse Foods	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lancaster Colony	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Do institutionals and insiders 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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer THS or LANC?

TreeHouse Foods received 103 more outperform votes than Lancaster Colony when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.08% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote while only 63.28% of users gave Lancaster Colony an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 66.08%	Underperform Votes 251 33.92%
Lancaster Colony	Outperform Votes 386 63.28%	Underperform Votes 224 36.72%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, THS or LANC?

Lancaster Colony has lower revenue, but higher earnings than TreeHouse Foods. TreeHouse 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
TreeHouse Foods	$3.43B	0.57	$53.10M	$0.95	38.47
Lancaster Colony	$1.82B	2.87	$111.29M	$4.68	40.68

Which has more risk & volatility, THS or LANC?

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

Is THS or LANC more profitable?

Lancaster Colony has a net margin of 6.92% compared to Lancaster Colony's net margin of 1.51%. TreeHouse Foods' return on equity of 17.37% beat Lancaster Colony's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	1.51%	8.09%	3.22%
Lancaster Colony	6.92%	17.37%	13.45%

Summary

Lancaster Colony beats TreeHouse Foods on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.