Contrasting Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) & Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:LWAY)

Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ:LWAY) and Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Lifeway Foods and Westrock Coffee, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifeway Foods	0	0	3	0	3.00
Westrock Coffee	1	1	3	0	2.40

Lifeway Foods presently has a consensus target price of $34.33, indicating a potential upside of 16.98%. Westrock Coffee has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 12.78%. Given Lifeway Foods’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Lifeway Foods is more favorable than Westrock Coffee.

Risk and Volatility

Lifeway Foods has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westrock Coffee has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifeway Foods	$212.50 million	2.11	$13.86 million	$0.97	30.26
Westrock Coffee	$1.28 billion	0.60	-$90.44 million	($0.75)	-10.64

Lifeway Foods has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Westrock Coffee. Westrock Coffee is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lifeway Foods, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Lifeway Foods and Westrock Coffee’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifeway Foods	6.54%	17.76%	13.82%
Westrock Coffee	-5.59%	-2,145.68%	-3.52%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

36.4% of Lifeway Foods shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.1% of Westrock Coffee shares are held by institutional investors. 18.6% of Lifeway Foods shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.4% of Westrock Coffee shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Lifeway Foods beats Westrock Coffee on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Westrock Coffee

Westrock Coffee Company, LLC operates as an integrated coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients solutions provider in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Beverage Solutions, and Sustainable Sourcing & Traceability (SS&T). The Beverage Solutions segment provides various packaging, including branded and private label coffee in bags, fractional packs, and single serve cups, as well as extract solutions for applications in cold brew and ready-to-drink offerings. The SS&T segment engages in delivery and settlement of forward sales contracts for green coffee. The company offers coffee sourcing, supply chain management, product development, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to the retail, food service and restaurant, convenience store and travel center, non-commercial account, CPG, and hospitality industries. Westrock Coffee Company, LLC was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.