Lifeway Foods (LWAY) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Lifeway Foods, Inc. is a food and beverage company that develops and markets cultured and fermented dairy products. The company is best known for Lifeway Kefir, a cultured milk smoothie containing live and active probiotic cultures. Its portfolio also includes low-fat and nonfat kefir, organic and plant-based kefir products, ProBugs probiotic beverages for children, and other cultured dairy products such as farmer cheese, sour cream and skyr-style offerings.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Morton Grove, Illinois, Lifeway helped introduce kefir to a broader U.S. consumer market. The company sells its products primarily through supermarkets, natural and specialty food retailers, mass merchants, club stores, foodservice channels and e-commerce platforms. Its products are distributed mainly in the United States, with availability also extending to select international markets.

Julie Smolyansky has served as Lifeway Foods’ president and chief executive officer since 2002 and is a significant figure in the company’s ongoing development. Lifeway focuses on expanding consumer awareness of fermented foods and probiotics while offering products designed for a range of dietary preferences, including organic, lactose-free and plant-based options.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $24.55 to $25.75
• 50-Day Range: $24.61 to $32.33
• 52-Week Range: $17.31 to $34.20
• Volume: 120,019 shs
• Average Volume: 122,174 shs
• Market Capitalization: $372.76 million
• P/E Ratio: 35.24
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $34.00
• Consensus Rating: Buy

Lifeway Foods Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Lifeway Foods scored higher than 84% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 33rd out of 174 stocks in the consumer staples sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Buy

Consensus Rating

Lifeway Foods has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 2 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Lifeway Foods has a consensus price target of $34.00, representing about 37.8% upside from its current price of $24.67.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Lifeway Foods has only been the subject of 3 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 0.6 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: N/A

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Lifeway Foods is 35.24, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 42.30.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Lifeway Foods is 35.24, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Staples sector average P/E ratio of about 13.43.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Lifeway Foods has a P/B Ratio of 4.37. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

3.47% of the float of Lifeway Foods has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Lifeway Foods has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.88, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Lifeway Foods has recently increased by 15.11%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Lifeway Foods does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Lifeway Foods does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.76

News Sentiment

Lifeway Foods has a news sentiment score of 1.76. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.72 average news sentiment score of Consumer Staples companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 3 news articles for Lifeway Foods this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

2 people have searched for LWAY on MarketBeat in the last 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

1 people have added Lifeway Foods to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 3.2 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Cluster Insider Buying

2 insiders have purchased shares of Lifeway Foods in the last three months. Multiple insiders buying is a strong bullish signal.

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Lifeway Foods insiders have sold 176.37% more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $6,176,730.00 in company stock and sold $17,070,367.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

18.58% of the stock of Lifeway Foods is held by insiders. A high percentage of insider ownership can be a sign of company health.

Percentage Held by Institutions

36.39% of the stock of Lifeway Foods is held by institutions.

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 8/13/2026
• Today: 9/14/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/12/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Consumer Staples
• Industry: Food Products
• Sub-Industry: Packaged Foods & Meats
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:LWAY
• CIK: 814586
• Web: www.lifewaykefir.com
• Phone: (847) 967-1010
• Fax: 847-967-6558
• Employees: 293
• Year Founded: 1986

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Lifeway Foods: $34.00
• High Price Target: $35.00
• Low Price Target: $32.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +37.8%
• Consensus Rating: Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 3.00
• Research Coverage: 4 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $0.70
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 35.24
• Forward P/E Ratio: N/A
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $13.86 million
• Net Margins: 4.48%
• Pretax Margin: 6.38%
• Return on Equity: 12.66%
• Return on Assets: 9.29%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.26
• Current Ratio: 2.09
• Quick Ratio: 1.47

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $212.50 million
• Price / Sales: 1.75
• Cash Flow: $1.17 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 21.01
• Book Value: $5.64 per share
• Price / Book: 4.37

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 15,110,000
• Free Float: 12,300,000
• Market Cap: $372.76 million
• Optionable: Not Optionable
• Beta: 0.44