Lamb Weston Holdings

Packaged Foods · Consumer Defensive

Price

$46.79

-0.13 (-0.28%)

Market Cap

$6.46B

Winston Score

Winston is serious

Below-average fundamentals — multiple weak pillars.

Share count falling — buybacks

−3.0% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 147.1M (2021) → 142.7M (2025)

Lamb Weston makes frozen potato products — mainly french fries, but also potato wedges, hash browns, and other potato-based foods. Its customers are restaurants, fast food chains, and food service companies around the world, including major chains like McDonald's. It is one of the largest frozen potato producers in North America.

The company sells its products directly to restaurants and through food distributors, earning revenue each time a customer places an order. Lamb Weston operates primarily in North America but also sells internationally, with a growing presence in Europe and Asia. Its scale and long-term contracts with large restaurant chains give it a degree of pricing stability, but the business is exposed to potato crop prices and input costs like oil and energy, which can squeeze margins — and with gross margins already under 21%, any cost pressure is a meaningful risk to profitability.

Winston Score History

Politician Trades

1 trades / 12mo

1 Congressional buy and 0 sells on LW in the last 12 months.

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Growth Profile

For growth stock investors

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+2.9% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Slow revenue growth

EPS Growth

-62.1% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

$0/ year

0.0% of revenue

Below sector average (2%)

Research and development spending

Insider Activity

1.0%ownership

→ Flat

Insiders holding steady — not selling despite ability to

Cash Runway

~5 months

$58M cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↑ Burn rate improving

Short runway — potential dilution ahead through share issuance

Cash watch

Lamb Weston Holdings has less than a year of cash at its current burn rate. Growth investors should watch for potential share dilution from future fundraising — that directly reduces your ownership.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

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Quality

Gross Margin

21.2%

Thin — 21.2% gross margin

Operating Margin

8.1%

Modest — 8.1% operating margin

ROCE

2.2%

Weak — 2.2% return on capital

ROIC between 0% and 5%. They earn a few cents back per dollar invested in the business.

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Growth

Sales YoY

+0.8%

Nearly flat sales (0.8% YoY)

EPS YoY

+28.3%

Earnings growing fast (28.3% YoY)

Earnings growing 25%+ a year. The compounder zone.

EPS Consistency

4/8 quarters

Earnings inconsistent quarter-to-quarter

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion

179%

Turns 179% of profit into real cash

FCF Margin

5.3%

Thin free cash flow (5.3%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

Debt / Equity

2.19

Heavy debt load (2.19)

Interest Cover

3.87x

Tight — interest eats into profit (3.9x)

Interest coverage between 3 and 8. Profits cover interest several times over.

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)

17.2x

Fair value — P/E 17.2

P/E in the normal range. Price is roughly $15 for every $1 of yearly profit.

P/E vs Forward

+3.6

GROWING

Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (17.2 → 13.6)

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Dividends

Dividend Yield

3.31%

Moderate income — 3.31% yield

Standard yield zone for stable dividend payers. A meaningful piece of total return.

Dividend Growth

+2.7%

Dividend flat

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