Lifeway Foods (LWAY) Competitors

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

Do analysts recommend LWAY or THS?

Lifeway Foods currently has a consensus target price of $33.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.04%. TreeHouse Foods has a consensus target price of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.11%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe TreeHouse Foods is more favorable than Lifeway Foods.

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

Which has more volatility & risk, LWAY or THS?

Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, LWAY or THS?

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
Lifeway Foods	$193.02M	2.45	$9.02M	$0.69	45.10
TreeHouse Foods	$3.35B	0.27	$26.90M	$0.39	46.58

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

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

Does the media prefer LWAY or THS?

In the previous week, Lifeway Foods had 4 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Lifeway Foods and 4 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. TreeHouse Foods' average media sentiment score of 1.64 beat Lifeway Foods' score of 1.11 indicating that TreeHouse Foods is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lifeway Foods	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
TreeHouse Foods	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is LWAY or THS more profitable?

Lifeway Foods has a net margin of 5.49% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of 0.62%. Lifeway Foods' return on equity of 14.32% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifeway Foods	5.49%	14.32%	11.35%
TreeHouse Foods	0.62%	6.35%	2.45%

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats TreeHouse Foods on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.