Comparing Glanbia (OTCMKTS:GLAPY) and Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:LWAY)

Glanbia (OTCMKTS:GLAPY) and Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:LWAY) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Glanbia and Lifeway Foods, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Glanbia	0	0	0	0	0.00
Lifeway Foods	0	1	0	0	2.00

Lifeway Foods has a consensus target price of $25.00, suggesting a potential downside of 0.20%. Given Lifeway Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lifeway Foods is more favorable than Glanbia.

Profitability

This table compares Glanbia and Lifeway Foods’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Glanbia	N/A	N/A	N/A
Lifeway Foods	5.39%	14.20%	11.25%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Glanbia and Lifeway Foods”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Glanbia	$3.84 billion	0.94	$164.70 million	N/A	N/A
Lifeway Foods	$186.82 million	2.04	$9.02 million	$0.66	37.95

Glanbia has higher revenue and earnings than Lifeway Foods.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

36.4% of Lifeway Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Glanbia shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.9% of Lifeway Foods shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Glanbia has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats Glanbia on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Glanbia

Glanbia plc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a nutrition company worldwide. The company offers sports nutrition and lifestyle nutrition products in various formats, such as powders, ready-to-eat bars and snacking food, and ready-to-drink beverage. It also manufactures and sells cheese, dairy, and non-dairy nutritional and functional ingredients; and vitamin and mineral premixes products. In addition, the company engages in the financing; research and development; property and land dealing; holding and management of receivables; property leasing; business services; management solutions; weight management; flavor solutions; and bioactive solutions businesses. It offers its products under the Optimum Nutrition, BSN, Isopure, Nutramino, SlimFast, think!, Amazing Grass, Body & Fit, and LevlUp brands. The company sells its products through specialty retail, online, gym, and food, drug, mass, and club channels. Glanbia plc was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland.

About Lifeway Foods

Lifeway Foods, Inc. produces and markets probiotic-based products in the United States and internationally. Its primary product is drinkable kefir, a cultured dairy product in various organic and non-organic sizes, flavors, and types. The company offers European-style soft cheeses; cream and other products; ProBugs, a line of kefir products designed for children; drinkable yogurt; and fresh made butter and sour cream. It sells its products under the Lifeway, GlenOaks Farms, and Fresh Made brand names, as well as under private labels on behalf of customers primarily through direct sales force, brokers, and distributors. Lifeway Foods, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is based in Morton Grove, Illinois.