Lifeway Foods (LWAY) Competitors

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

Which has more volatility and risk, THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods currently has a consensus target price of $27.83, suggesting a potential upside of 24.76%. Lifeway Foods has a consensus target price of $25.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.00%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher possible upside, equities 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)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media favor THS or LWAY?

In the previous week, Lifeway Foods had 6 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Lifeway Foods and 2 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. TreeHouse Foods' average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat Lifeway Foods' score of 0.83 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	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lifeway Foods	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, 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	$3.33B	0.34	$26.90M	$0.13	171.61
Lifeway Foods	$188.28M	2.02	$11.37M	$0.66	37.88

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of THS or LWAY?

99.8% of TreeHouse Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.4% of Lifeway Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.1% of TreeHouse Foods shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.9% of Lifeway Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

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 favor THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods received 184 more outperform votes than Lifeway Foods when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.87% of users gave Lifeway Foods an outperform vote while only 63.42% of users gave TreeHouse Foods an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
TreeHouse Foods	Outperform Votes 489 63.42%	Underperform Votes 282 36.58%
Lifeway Foods	Outperform Votes 305 65.87%	Underperform Votes 158 34.13%

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats TreeHouse Foods on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.