The Marzetti Company (MZTI) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
MZTI is The Marzetti Company (NasdaqGS), the Ohio specialty food maker that traded as Lancaster Colony under the ticker LANC until July 1, 2025. Owning it today means holding a slow-growing but high-quality dressings, sauces and frozen bread business with a decades-long dividend record, priced near ~18x trailing earnings after a drawdown of roughly 40% from its 52-week high.
MZTI stock price
As of 2026-08-18, The Marzetti Company (MZTI) last closed at $116.67, down 35.4% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $104.72 and $189.18.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or The Marzetti Company's investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does The Marzetti Company (MZTI) do?
The Marzetti Company makes and markets specialty foods through two segments. Retail sells branded products into grocery, mass and club stores: Marzetti dressings, dips and caramel, New York Bakery frozen garlic bread, Sister Schubert's dinner rolls, Reames frozen noodles, Cardini's and Girard's dressings, plus a large licensed portfolio that puts restaurant names on shelf products, including Olive Garden dressings, Chick-fil-A sauces and dressings, Buffalo Wild Wings sauces, Texas Roadhouse steak sauces and Subway sauces. Foodservice manufactures dressings, sauces and baked goods for national chain restaurant accounts and distributors, a lower-margin but steadier business tied to menu volumes rather than grocery shelf turns. The company is headquartered in the Columbus, Ohio area, employs roughly ~3,700 people, and runs a June fiscal year end.
The ticker and the name are new, the company is not. Lancaster Colony amended its articles of incorporation effective June 27, 2025 to become The Marzetti Company, and the shares began trading as MZTI on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 1, 2025, replacing LANC. There was no merger, spin-off or change of listing, just a rebrand around the flagship brand. What has changed is the market's price for the business. The stock traded as high as ~$191 over the past year and sits near ~$114, a market value of about ~$3.13 billion, after fiscal 2026 retail volumes turned negative. Management disclosed on the May 2026 call that the licensed Chick-fil-A sauce line had effectively sold consumers about a year's supply, a pull-forward that flattered prior comparisons and pressured the ones that followed. Several plaintiffs' firms opened investigations after that disclosure, though no securities class action complaint has been filed as of August 2026. Meanwhile gross margin hit a quarterly record, the dividend was raised again, and the company closed its acquisition of Bachan's, a fast-growing Japanese barbecue sauce brand.
What's driving The Marzetti Company (MZTI)?
1. Licensed restaurant brands on the grocery shelf
Marzetti's edge in retail is renting other companies' brand equity: Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Texas Roadhouse and Subway all appear on products the company manufactures. The model wins distribution quickly and at good margins because the brand marketing is already done. The same model created the current problem, since a hit item like Chick-fil-A sauce can load consumer pantries and then lap itself badly, which is exactly what fiscal 2026 retail volumes showed.
2. Bachan's and the sauce adjacency
The company completed its purchase of Bachan's, a Japanese barbecue sauce brand that did roughly ~$87 million of net sales in calendar 2025, and guided to a run-rate moderately above that level once it is inside the portfolio. Sauces carry better growth rates than dressings, and Marzetti already has the manufacturing, the retail shelf relationships and the foodservice channel to push a brand harder than a founder-run business could. Whether the acquired growth rate survives the integration is the thing to watch across fiscal 2027.
3. Margin and cost savings, not volume
Third quarter fiscal 2026 gross profit reached a quarterly record of about ~$107.2 million on sales that fell ~1%, with gross margin up roughly 50 basis points to ~23.6%. Cost savings programs, favorable input costs and mix have carried profit while pounds shipped declined. Earnings power therefore currently depends more on the cost side than on volume recovery, and that only works for so long if retail pounds keep shrinking.
4. Foodservice as the ballast
Foodservice net sales rose about ~1.5% to roughly ~$219.6 million in the fiscal third quarter while retail fell, a useful offset given restaurant traffic has been mixed. Growth is concentrated in select national chain accounts, so the segment is customer-concentrated rather than broad. It smooths the retail cycle without adding much multiple, since it is contract manufacturing economics at heart.
What are the risks to The Marzetti Company (MZTI)?
Retail volume is the central risk: pounds shipped fell about ~5.6% in the fiscal third quarter, and a business priced for durability does not usually get credit for cost savings alone. Customer concentration cuts both ways, since a handful of licensors and a handful of chain restaurant customers drive a large share of sales, and a licensing agreement that is not renewed removes both revenue and shelf space at once. Several law firms including Pomerantz, Schall, Bronstein Gewirtz & Grossman, Bragar Eagel & Squire and Johnson Fistel opened investigations after the May 4, 2026 disclosure about the Chick-fil-A sauce pull-forward, and while no complaint has been filed as of August 2026, litigation is a live possibility. Commodity costs (soybean oil, eggs, dairy, flour) and freight can move gross margin quickly in either direction. Finally, the valuation still embeds a quality premium relative to most packaged food peers, so a further reset in growth expectations has room to compress the multiple further.
What is the The Marzetti Company (MZTI) forecast?
5 analysts publish price targets on MZTI, averaging $159.40 against a $114.04 price as of August 2026, or +39.8%. The published targets run from $125.00 to $204.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 2 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 0 raises and 3 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.
Read the full MZTI forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.
Is MZTI a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on The Marzetti Company. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. Licensed restaurant brands on the grocery shelf. Marzetti's edge in retail is renting other companies' brand equity: Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Texas Roadhouse and Subway all appear on products the company manufactures. The most optimistic published target, $204.00, assumes this works close to its best case.
The case against. Retail volume is the central risk: pounds shipped fell about ~5.6% in the fiscal third quarter, and a business priced for durability does not usually get credit for cost savings alone. The most pessimistic target, $125.00, is roughly what MZTI is worth if this bites instead.
Read the full bull and bear case on MZTI, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
How is The Marzetti Company (MZTI) valued? (approximate, August 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see The Marzetti Company's investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (TTM): ~$1.94B
- Net income (TTM): ~$175M
- EPS (TTM, diluted): ~$6.39
- Market cap: ~$3.13B
- P/E (trailing): ~17.9x
- Dividend yield: ~3.5% (~$1.00 quarterly)
Fiscal 2025 revenue was about ~$1.91 billion with net income near ~$167 million, and the trailing twelve months through the March 2026 quarter run slightly ahead of that at roughly ~$1.94 billion and ~$175 million. Fiscal third quarter 2026, reported May 4, 2026, showed consolidated net sales of about ~$453.4 million (down ~1.0%), retail down ~3.2% to roughly ~$233.8 million, foodservice up ~1.5% to about ~$219.6 million, and diluted EPS of ~$1.35 versus ~$1.49 a year earlier. Shares fell about ~6.6% that day to close near ~$116. Fiscal fourth quarter and full-year results, covering the June 2026 quarter and the first partial contribution from Bachan's, are due in late August 2026 and had not been reported at the time of writing.
Who competes with The Marzetti Company (MZTI)?
Branded packaged food and condiments
Kraft Heinz, Conagra Brands, McCormick, Hormel Foods and General Mills compete for the same grocery shelf space in dressings, sauces, dips and frozen sides. Most are larger and more diversified, and several trade at lower multiples with slower or negative organic growth, which is the peer set that sets the ceiling on how Marzetti gets valued when its own growth stalls.
Frozen bread and bakery
New York Bakery garlic bread and Sister Schubert's rolls compete against Flowers Foods, privately held Rich Products, Grupo Bimbo's frozen lines and the store-brand programs of large grocers. Category volumes have been soft across packaged bakery, and private label is the persistent share threat because bread is where shoppers trade down first.
Foodservice sauce and dressing manufacturers
On the foodservice side the rivals are largely private or captive: Ventura Foods, Kerry Group, Sysco's and US Foods' own label programs, and regional co-packers bidding for the same national chain contracts. Wins and losses here happen at the customer level rather than the brand level, so the segment is competitive on price, capacity and food safety record rather than consumer pull.
What stocks are similar to The Marzetti Company (MZTI)?
Other names that sit close to MZTI: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in The Marzetti Company (MZTI)
There are three common ways to get MZTI exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so MZTI sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where MZTI fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on The Marzetti Company (MZTI)
MZTI is the same Lancaster Colony business under a new name and ticker, now trading at a compressed multiple because retail volumes stalled after a licensed-sauce pull-forward, with the debate centered on whether that is a one-year reset or a slower plateau.
More on The Marzetti Company (MZTI)
Whether MZTI is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is MZTI a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the MZTI stock forecast.
For income investors, whether MZTI pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does MZTI pay a dividend? And to weigh MZTI against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: MZTI vs KHC and MZTI vs CAG.
Wondering how MZTI fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in The Marzetti Company with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how MZTI fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
Is MZTI the same company as Lancaster Colony (LANC)?
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Yes. Lancaster Colony Corporation amended its articles of incorporation effective June 27, 2025 to rename itself The Marzetti Company, and the shares began trading under MZTI on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 1, 2025, replacing LANC. No merger, spin-off or exchange change was involved, so shareholders kept their shares and the price history simply continues under the new symbol.
Why did the company change its name?
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Marzetti has been the flagship brand since Lancaster Colony acquired it in 1969, and it traces back to Teresa Marzetti's Columbus, Ohio restaurant in 1896. The old corporate name came from a conglomerate history (glassware, automotive and other lines) that had long since been sold off, so the rebrand aligns the corporate identity with the specialty food business that remained. The company rang the Nasdaq closing bell on July 10, 2025 to mark it.
What does The Marzetti Company actually sell?
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Two segments. Retail covers Marzetti dressings, dips and caramel, New York Bakery garlic bread, Sister Schubert's rolls, Reames noodles, Cardini's and Girard's, plus licensed products carrying restaurant names such as Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Texas Roadhouse and Subway. Foodservice manufactures dressings, sauces and baked goods for national chain restaurants and distributors. The split is roughly balanced, with retail slightly larger and carrying the higher margin.
Why has the stock fallen so far from its high?
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Shares traded as high as about ~$191 in the past year and sit near ~$114. Retail volumes turned negative through fiscal 2026, with pounds shipped down roughly ~5.6% in the March quarter, and management disclosed on the May 4, 2026 call that the licensed Chick-fil-A sauce line had sold consumers roughly a year's supply, meaning prior growth had been partly pulled forward. The stock dropped about ~6.6% on that day and the multiple has compressed since.
Is there an active securities class action against MZTI?
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As of August 2026, no complaint has been filed that carries a case number, court and class period. Several plaintiffs' firms including Pomerantz, The Schall Law Firm, Bronstein Gewirtz & Grossman, Bragar Eagel & Squire and Johnson Fistel published investigation notices in May 2026 after the third quarter disclosure. An investigation notice is a solicitation, not a lawsuit, though it often precedes one.
Does MZTI pay a dividend?
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Yes. The quarterly payment is ~$1.00 per share, about ~$4.00 annualized, which works out to a yield near ~3.5% at recent prices. Under the Lancaster Colony name the company built one of the longest consecutive annual dividend-increase streaks on the US market, running more than 60 years, and the streak has continued under the Marzetti name. Payout is roughly ~60% of trailing earnings.
What is the Bachan's acquisition?
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Bachan's is a Japanese barbecue sauce brand that grew quickly in US grocery and did about ~$87 million of net sales in calendar 2025. Marzetti completed the purchase during its fiscal fourth quarter of 2026 and guided to a run-rate moderately above that $87 million level, with roughly two-thirds of the quarter's contribution landing in fiscal 2026 results. It extends the company deeper into sauces, the faster-growing side of its category mix.
How does someone track MZTI inside Walnut?
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Add MZTI to a basket alongside whatever thesis it belongs to (packaged food, dividend growth, consumer staples), set target weights, and Walnut charts the group against a benchmark and flags how far actual weights have moved from the targets. The AI assistant can pull the position data and recent filings to answer questions about how the holding is doing. Walnut is not an investment adviser and nothing here is a recommendation.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with The Marzetti Company's investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.