Lendway (NASDAQ:TULP) and General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Critical Contrast

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) and Lendway (NASDAQ:TULP) are both consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for General Mills and Lendway, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
General Mills	6	12	4	0	1.91
Lendway	1	0	0	0	1.00

General Mills presently has a consensus price target of $39.32, indicating a potential upside of 9.62%. Given General Mills’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe General Mills is more favorable than Lendway.

Profitability

This table compares General Mills and Lendway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
General Mills	-0.48%	21.37%	5.94%
Lendway	-9.79%	-42.76%	-4.77%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares General Mills and Lendway”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
General Mills	$18.42 billion	1.04	-$87.60 million	($0.18)	-199.26
Lendway	$5.15 million	3.15	-$2.85 million	($2.75)	-1.24

Lendway has lower revenue, but higher earnings than General Mills. General Mills is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lendway, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

General Mills has a beta of -0.01, meaning that its share price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lendway has a beta of 2.63, meaning that its share price is 163% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.7% of General Mills shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Lendway shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of General Mills shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.4% of Lendway shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

General Mills beats Lendway on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About General Mills

General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. The company also manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food; and operates ice cream parlors. It markets its products under the Annie’s, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Dunkaroos, Edgard & Cooper, Fiber One, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto’s, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Häagen-Dazs, Kitano, Kix, Lärabar, Latina, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Nudges, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Progresso, Tastefuls, Total, Totino’s , Trix, True Chews, True Solutions, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, and Yoki brands. The company sells its products to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About Lendway

Insignia Systems, Inc. provides in-store advertising solutions to consumer-packaged goods manufacturers, retailers, shopper marketing agencies, and brokerages in the United States. It offers in-store signage solutions, which provides point-of-purchase services; merchandising solutions that include various corrugate displays, side caps, free standing shippers, and customized end-cap solutions; and on-pack solutions, which include BoxTalk, coupons, recipes, and cross-promotions. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.