Lifeway Foods (LWAY) Competitors

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

Do insiders & institutionals 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 company insiders. Comparatively, 18.9% of Lifeway Foods shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods presently has a consensus target price of $27.17, suggesting a potential upside of 27.47%. Lifeway Foods has a consensus target price of $25.00, suggesting a potential downside of 5.55%. Given TreeHouse Foods' higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly 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

Which has more volatility & risk, THS or LWAY?

TreeHouse Foods has a beta of 0.25, suggesting that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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	$3.35B	0.32	$26.90M	$0.13	163.94
Lifeway Foods	$186.82M	2.15	$9.02M	$0.66	40.11

Does the media prefer THS or LWAY?

In the previous week, Lifeway Foods had 1 more articles in the media than TreeHouse Foods. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Lifeway Foods and 3 mentions for TreeHouse Foods. Lifeway Foods' average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat TreeHouse Foods' score of 0.56 indicating that Lifeway Foods is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
TreeHouse Foods	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lifeway Foods	1 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 LWAY more profitable?

Lifeway Foods has a net margin of 5.39% compared to TreeHouse Foods' net margin of 0.20%. Lifeway Foods' return on equity of 14.20% beat TreeHouse Foods' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TreeHouse Foods	0.20%	6.73%	2.63%
Lifeway Foods	5.39%	14.20%	11.25%

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats TreeHouse Foods on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.