How to buy Lancaster Colony Corporation stock | $173.92

Lancaster Colony Corporation is a packaged foods business based in the US. Lancaster Colony Corporation shares (LANC) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Lancaster Colony Corporation employs 3,200 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$1.3 billion.

How to buy shares in Lancaster Colony Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Lancaster Colony Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: LANC. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Lancaster Colony Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$173.92, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Lancaster Colony Corporation, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Lancaster Colony Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Lancaster Colony Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of LANC stocks over time.

Lancaster Colony Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

Latest market close	USD$173.92
52-week range	USD$113.1044 - USD$184.1488
50-day moving average	USD$172.5832
200-day moving average	USD$168.7979
Wall St. target price	USD$193.67
PE ratio	36.0124
Dividend yield	USD$3 (1.72%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$4.84

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Is it a good time to buy Lancaster Colony Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Lancaster Colony Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Lancaster Colony Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $173.92 from 2020-12-09

1 week (2021-01-13)	1.06%
1 month (2020-12-23)	1.03%
3 months (2020-10-20)	-1.12%
6 months (2020-07-20)	11.39%

1 year (2020-01-19)	N/A
2 years (2019-01-19)	N/A
3 years (2018-01-19)	35.24%
5 years (2016-01-20)	49.38%

Is Lancaster Colony Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing Lancaster Colony Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Lancaster Colony Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's P/E ratio

Lancaster Colony Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 36x. In other words, Lancaster Colony Corporation shares trade at around 36x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's PEG ratio

Lancaster Colony Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 8.47. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Lancaster Colony Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's EBITDA

Lancaster Colony Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$208.5 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Lancaster Colony Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Lancaster Colony Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	USD$1.3 billion
Operating margin TTM	12.54%
Gross profit TTM	USD$358 million
Return on assets TTM	10.63%
Return on equity TTM	17.19%
Profit margin	9.9%
Book value	$29.089
Market capitalisation	USD$4.8 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Lancaster Colony Corporation shares

There are currently 1.1 million Lancaster Colony Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as Lancaster Colony Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 13.9% up from 963,220 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Lancaster Colony Corporation shares can be evaluated.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Lancaster Colony Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Lancaster Colony Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Lancaster Colony Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 181943.44941957). Lancaster Colony Corporation's SIR currently stands at 6.03. In other words for every 100,000 Lancaster Colony Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 6030 shares are currently held short.

However Lancaster Colony Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Lancaster Colony Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable Lancaster Colony Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Lancaster Colony Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.03% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Lancaster Colony Corporation shares in existence, roughly 30 shares are currently held short) or 0.0511% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Lancaster Colony Corporation shares, roughly 51 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Lancaster Colony Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short Lancaster Colony Corporation stock.

Lancaster Colony Corporation share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 58.5% of net profits

Recently Lancaster Colony Corporation has paid out, on average, around 58.5% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.72% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Lancaster Colony Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 1.72% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Lancaster Colony Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $3 per share.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Lancaster Colony Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 31 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 4 December 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Lancaster Colony Corporation's shares ever split?

Lancaster Colony Corporation's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 28 January 1998. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Lancaster Colony Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Lancaster Colony Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted Lancaster Colony Corporation's share price.

Lancaster Colony Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Lancaster Colony Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $113.1044 up to $184.1488. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Lancaster Colony Corporation's is 0.2404. This would suggest that Lancaster Colony Corporation's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Lancaster Colony Corporation overview

Lancaster Colony Corporation manufactures and markets specialty food products for the retail and foodservice markets in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Retail and Foodservice. It offers frozen garlic bread under the New York BRAND Bakery; frozen Parkerhouse style yeast and dinner rolls under the Sister Schubert's; frozen mini stuffed bagels under the Bantam Bagels; salad dressings under the Marzetti, Simply Dressed, Simply 60, Cardini's, Tastefully Dressed, and Girard's; and vegetable and fruit dips under the Marzetti brand names. The company also provides flatbread wraps and pizza crusts under the Flatout; sprouted grain bakery products under the Angelic Bakehouse; croutons and salad toppings under the New York BRAND Bakery, Chatham Village, and Marzetti; and frozen pasta under the Marzetti Frozen Pasta brand names. In addition, it manufactures and sells other products to brand license agreements, including Olive Garden's dressings, Chick-fil-A, and Buffalo Wild Wings sauces. The company sells its products through sales personnel, food brokers, and distributors to retailers and restaurants. Lancaster Colony Corporation was founded in 1961 and is based in Westerville, Ohio.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Lancaster Colony Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 34.641% of Lancaster Colony Corporation shares are held by insiders and 57.307% by institutions.

• How many people work for Lancaster Colony Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 3,200 work at Lancaster Colony Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for Lancaster Colony Corporation?

  Lancaster Colony Corporation's fiscal year ends in June.

• Where is Lancaster Colony Corporation based?

  Lancaster Colony Corporation's address is: 380 Polaris Parkway, Westerville, OH, United States, 43082

• What is Lancaster Colony Corporation's ISIN number?

  Lancaster Colony Corporation's international securities identification number is: US5138471033

• What is Lancaster Colony Corporation's CUSIP number?

  Lancaster Colony Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 513847103