Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) and L’Oreal (OTCMKTS:LRLCY) Financial Survey

L’Oreal (OTCMKTS:LRLCY) and Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

L’Oreal has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Church & Dwight has a beta of 0.42, suggesting that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for L’Oreal and Church & Dwight, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
L’Oreal	2	4	1	2	2.33
Church & Dwight	5	7	6	0	2.06

Church & Dwight has a consensus target price of $99.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.60%. Given Church & Dwight’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Church & Dwight is more favorable than L’Oreal.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares L’Oreal and Church & Dwight”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
L’Oreal	$47.06 billion	4.70	$6.93 billion	N/A	N/A
Church & Dwight	$6.14 billion	3.29	$585.30 million	$3.18	26.47

L’Oreal has higher revenue and earnings than Church & Dwight.

Profitability

This table compares L’Oreal and Church & Dwight’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
L’Oreal	N/A	N/A	N/A
Church & Dwight	8.66%	19.27%	9.55%

Dividends

L’Oreal pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Church & Dwight pays an annual dividend of $1.18 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Church & Dwight pays out 37.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Church & Dwight has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years. Church & Dwight is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.4% of L’Oreal shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.6% of Church & Dwight shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Church & Dwight shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Church & Dwight beats L’Oreal on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About L’Oreal

L'Oréal S.A., through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cosmetic products for women and men worldwide. The company operates through four divisions: Consumer Products, L'oréal Luxe, Professional Products, and Dermatological Beauty. It offers skincare, make-up, hair colourants, haircare, perfumes, and hygiene products. The company provides its products under the L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, Stylenanda, Essie, Dark & Lovely, Mixa, Magic Mask, Niley, Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Kiehl's Since 1851, Helena Rubinstein, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, IT Cosmetics, Ralph Lauren Fragrance, Urban Decay, Mugler, Valentino, Viktor&Rolf, Azzaro, Prada, Cacharel, Maison Margela Fragrance, Diesel, Yue Sai, Atelier Colonge, Carita, Takami, Aesop, L'Oréal Professionnel Paris, Kérastase, Redken, Matrix, Pureology, Pulp Riot, La Roche-Posay, Vichy, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, and Skinbetter Science brands. It sells its products through distribution channels, such as hair salons, local stores, e-commerce, travel retail, mass market retail, department store perfumeries, pharmacies, drug stores, medi-spas, and free-standing stores. L'Oréal S.A. was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Clichy, France.

About Church & Dwight

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements. The Consumer International segment is involved in the personal care, household and over-the-counter products in international subsidiary markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, China, and the United Kingdom. The SPD segment consists of sales to businesses and participates in three product areas namely, animal nutrition, specialty chemicals, and commercial and professional. The Corporate segment includes equity in earnings of affiliates. The company was founded by Dwight John and Austin Church in 1846 and is headquartered in Ewing, NJ.