Head-To-Head Review: Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) versus Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO)

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) and Alto Ingredients (NASDAQ:ALTO) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Lifetime Brands and Alto Ingredients, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lifetime Brands	1	1	1	0	2.00
Alto Ingredients	0	0	1	0	3.00

Lifetime Brands currently has a consensus price target of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 37.50%. Alto Ingredients has a consensus price target of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 378.26%. Given Alto Ingredients’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Alto Ingredients is more favorable than Lifetime Brands.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Alto Ingredients”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lifetime Brands	$682.95 million	0.13	-$15.16 million	($1.59)	-2.52
Alto Ingredients	$965.26 million	0.09	-$58.98 million	($0.92)	-1.25

Lifetime Brands has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Alto Ingredients. Lifetime Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alto Ingredients, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Lifetime Brands and Alto Ingredients’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lifetime Brands	-5.16%	0.12%	0.04%
Alto Ingredients	-7.16%	-18.78%	-10.60%

Risk and Volatility

Lifetime Brands has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alto Ingredients has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

40.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.4% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by institutional investors. 43.6% of Lifetime Brands shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Alto Ingredients shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lifetime Brands beats Alto Ingredients on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lifetime Brands

Lifetime Brands, Inc. designs, sources, and sells branded kitchenware, tableware, and other products for use in the home in the worldwide. The company provides kitchenware products, including kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery, kitchen scales, thermometers, cutting boards, shears, cookware, pantryware, spice racks, and bakeware; and tableware products comprising dinnerware, stemware, flatware, and giftware. It also provides home solutions, such as thermal beverageware, bath scales, weather and outdoor household, food storage, neoprene travel, and home décor products. The company owns or licenses various brands, including the Farberware, Mikasa, Taylor, KitchenAid, Pfaltzgraff, BUILT NY, Rabbit, Kamenstein, S’well, and Fred & Friends. It serves mass market merchants, specialty stores, department stores, warehouse clubs, grocery stores, off-price retailers, food service distributors, food and beverage outlets, and e-commerce. The company sells its products directly, as well as through its retail websites. Lifetime Brands, Inc. was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Garden City, New York.

About Alto Ingredients

Alto Ingredients, Inc. produces, distributes, and markets specialty alcohols, renewable fuel, and essential ingredients in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Marketing and Distribution, Pekin Campus Production, and Western Production. It offers specialty alcohols used in mouthwash, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and cleaners for health, home, and beauty markets; grain neutral spirits used in alcoholic beverages and vinegar, as well as corn germ used in corn oils in the food and beverage markets; alcohols and other products for paint applications and fertilizers in the industrial and agriculture markets; and essential ingredients include dried yeast, corn protein meal, corn protein feed, distiller's grains, and liquid feed for commercial animal feed and pet food applications, as well as yeast for human consumption. The company also provides fuel-grade ethanol used as transportation fuel and distillers corn oil used as a biodiesel feedstock, as well as fuel-grade ethanol produced by third parties. In addition, it offers transportation, storage, and delivery services through third-party service providers. The company sells ethanol to integrated oil companies and gasoline marketers; essential ingredient feed products to dairies and feedlots; and corn oil to poultry, renewable diesel, and biodiesel customers. It operates alcohol production facilities. The company was formerly known as Pacific Ethanol, Inc. and changed its name to Alto Ingredients, Inc. in January 2021. Alto Ingredients, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Pekin, Illinois.