Medifast (MED) Competitors

Medifast (NYSE:MED) and Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Do analysts rate MED or LW?

Medifast presently has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 28.54%. Lamb Weston has a consensus target price of $67.40, indicating a potential upside of 30.97%. Given Lamb Weston's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lamb Weston is more favorable than Medifast.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medifast	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Lamb Weston	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.30

Is MED or LW a better dividend stock?

Medifast pays an annual dividend of $6.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 51.4%. Lamb Weston pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Medifast pays out 2,062.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lamb Weston pays out 59.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lamb Weston has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Which has better valuation and earnings, MED or LW?

Lamb Weston has higher revenue and earnings than Medifast. Lamb Weston is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Medifast, 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
Medifast	$480.45M	0.29	$2.09M	$0.32	40.11
Lamb Weston	$6.45B	1.11	$357.20M	$2.51	20.50

Which has more volatility & risk, MED or LW?

Medifast has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lamb Weston has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is MED or LW more profitable?

Lamb Weston has a net margin of 5.54% compared to Medifast's net margin of 0.76%. Lamb Weston's return on equity of 27.99% beat Medifast's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medifast	0.76%	2.00%	1.50%
Lamb Weston	5.54%	27.99%	6.43%

Does the media favor MED or LW?

In the previous week, Medifast had 7 more articles in the media than Lamb Weston. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Medifast and 11 mentions for Lamb Weston. Lamb Weston's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat Medifast's score of 0.26 indicating that Lamb Weston is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Medifast	2 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Lamb Weston	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of MED or LW?

95.5% of Medifast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of Lamb Weston shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Medifast shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Lamb Weston shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lamb Weston beats Medifast on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.