Leggett & Platt (LEG) Competitors

Leggett & Platt (NYSE:LEG) and La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Do analysts prefer LEG or LZB?

Leggett & Platt presently has a consensus target price of $9.67, suggesting a potential upside of 4.73%. La-Z-Boy has a consensus target price of $44.50, suggesting a potential upside of 16.46%. Given La-Z-Boy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe La-Z-Boy is more favorable than Leggett & Platt.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Leggett & Platt	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
La-Z-Boy	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is LEG or LZB a better dividend stock?

Leggett & Platt pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. La-Z-Boy pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Leggett & Platt pays out -5.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. La-Z-Boy pays out 30.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. La-Z-Boy has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. La-Z-Boy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is LEG or LZB more profitable?

La-Z-Boy has a net margin of 5.92% compared to Leggett & Platt's net margin of -11.67%. Leggett & Platt's return on equity of 17.09% beat La-Z-Boy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Leggett & Platt	-11.67%	17.09%	3.64%
La-Z-Boy	5.92%	12.38%	6.54%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LEG or LZB?

Leggett & Platt received 3 more outperform votes than La-Z-Boy when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.86% of users gave La-Z-Boy an outperform vote while only 55.48% of users gave Leggett & Platt an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Leggett & Platt	Outperform Votes 329 55.48%	Underperform Votes 264 44.52%
La-Z-Boy	Outperform Votes 326 61.86%	Underperform Votes 201 38.14%

Does the media refer more to LEG or LZB?

In the previous week, La-Z-Boy had 2 more articles in the media than Leggett & Platt. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for La-Z-Boy and 5 mentions for Leggett & Platt. Leggett & Platt's average media sentiment score of 0.95 beat La-Z-Boy's score of 0.83 indicating that Leggett & Platt is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Leggett & Platt	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
La-Z-Boy	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings and valuation, LEG or LZB?

La-Z-Boy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Leggett & Platt. Leggett & Platt is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than La-Z-Boy, 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
Leggett & Platt	$4.31B	0.29	-$511.50M	-$3.74	-2.47
La-Z-Boy	$2.09B	0.75	$122.63M	$2.91	13.13

Do institutionals and insiders believe in LEG or LZB?

64.2% of Leggett & Platt shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.6% of La-Z-Boy shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Leggett & Platt shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of La-Z-Boy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, LEG or LZB?

Leggett & Platt has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, La-Z-Boy has a beta of 1.31, meaning that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

La-Z-Boy beats Leggett & Platt on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.