Critical Survey: Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) & Lifevantage (NASDAQ:LFVN)

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) and Lifevantage (NASDAQ:LFVN) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Herbalife has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifevantage has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Herbalife and Lifevantage, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Herbalife	0	4	3	0	2.43
Lifevantage	0	2	0	0	2.00

Herbalife currently has a consensus price target of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 36.71%. Lifevantage has a consensus price target of $5.00, suggesting a potential downside of 23.08%. Given Herbalife’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Herbalife is more favorable than Lifevantage.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Herbalife and Lifevantage”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Herbalife	$5.04 billion	0.26	$228.30 million	$1.55	8.02
Lifevantage	$195.32 million	0.42	$9.81 million	$0.45	14.44

Herbalife has higher revenue and earnings than Lifevantage. Herbalife is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lifevantage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.3% of Lifevantage shares are held by institutional investors. 5.1% of Herbalife shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.0% of Lifevantage shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Herbalife and Lifevantage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Herbalife	3.16%	-43.90%	7.89%
Lifevantage	2.94%	23.89%	12.47%

Summary

Herbalife beats Lifevantage on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Herbalife

Herbalife Ltd. provides health and wellness products in North America, Mexico, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, and the Asia Pacific. It offers products in the areas of weight management; targeted nutrition; energy, sports, and fitness; outer nutrition; and literature and promotional items. The company also provides weight management products, including meal replacement products, protein shakes, drink mixes, weight loss supplements, healthy snacks, and metabolism boosting teas; targeted nutrition products, which comprise functional beverages, and dietary and nutritional supplements that contain herbs, vitamins, minerals, and other natural ingredients; outer nutrition products, such as facial skin, body, and hair care products; and energy, sports, and fitness products, including N-R-G tea and energy drink products. In addition, it offers literature, promotional, and other materials that comprise start-up kits, sales tools, and educational materials. The company sells its products through sales representatives, independent service providers, and company-operated retail platforms. Herbalife Ltd. was formerly known as Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. and changed its name to Herbalife Ltd. in April 2023. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Lifevantage

LifeVantage Corporation engages in the identification, research, development, formulation, and sale of advanced nutrigenomic activators, dietary supplements, nootropics, pre- and pro-biotics, weight management, skin and hair care, bath and body, and targeted relief products. It offers Protandim, a dietary supplement; LifeVantage Omega+, a dietary supplement that combines DHA and EPA Omega-3 fatty acids, Omega-7 fatty acids, and vitamin D3; LifeVantage ProBio, a dietary supplement to support gut health; PhysIQ, a weight management system; LifeVantage IC Bright, a supplement to support eye and brain health, reduce eye fatigue and strain, supports cognitive functions, and support normal sleep patterns; Petandim for Dogs, a supplement to combat oxidative stress in dogs; and Axio, a nootropic energy drink mix. The company also provides anti-aging skin care products, including liquid collagen, facial cleansers, perfecting lotions, eye serums, anti-aging creams, hand creams, beauty serum, as well as hair care products, such as invigorating shampoos, nourishing conditioners, and scalp serums under the LifeVantage TrueScience brand name. In addition, it offers bath and body, and targeted relief products, such as body lotion, body wash, body butter, deodorant, soothing balm, and body rub under the TrueScience brand name. It sells its products through its website and network of independent distributors in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Taiwan, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Philippines. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah.