Financial Contrast: L’Oreal (OTCMKTS:LRLCY) & Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC)

L’Oreal (OTCMKTS:LRLCY) and Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

L’Oreal has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Edgewell Personal Care has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.4% of L’Oreal shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Edgewell Personal Care shares are owned by 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 L’Oreal and Edgewell Personal Care’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
Edgewell Personal Care	-1.76%	7.16%	2.90%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares L’Oreal and Edgewell Personal Care”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
L’Oreal	$49.83 billion	4.59	$6.93 billion	N/A	N/A
Edgewell Personal Care	$2.22 billion	0.48	$25.40 million	($0.85)	-26.60

L’Oreal has higher revenue and earnings than Edgewell Personal Care.

Dividends

L’Oreal pays an annual dividend of $1.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Edgewell Personal Care pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Edgewell Personal Care pays out -70.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for L’Oreal and Edgewell Personal Care, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
L’Oreal	1	5	5	1	2.50
Edgewell Personal Care	1	4	3	0	2.25

Edgewell Personal Care has a consensus price target of $24.17, suggesting a potential upside of 6.88%. Given Edgewell Personal Care’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Edgewell Personal Care is more favorable than L’Oreal.

Summary

L’Oreal beats Edgewell Personal Care on 8 of the 15 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 Edgewell Personal Care

Edgewell Personal Care Company is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had a portfolio of over 25 brands. It manages its business in four segments: Wet Shave, Sun and Skin Care, Feminine Care and All Other. Its Wet shave products are sold under the Schick, Wilkinson Sword, Edge, Skintimate, Shave Guard and Personna brand names. Its Sun and Skin Care products are sold under the Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic, Wet Ones and Playtex brand names and offers Wet Ones, portable hand wipes category, and Playtex household gloves, the branded household glove in the United States. Its Feminine Care segment markets its products under the Playtex, Stayfree, Carefree and o.b. brands and markets pads and liners. Its All Other segment includes infant care, pet care and miscellaneous other products.