AutoZone (AZO) Competitors

O'Reilly Automotive (NASDAQ:ORLY) and AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Which has more risk & volatility, ORLY or AZO?

O'Reilly Automotive has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AutoZone has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ORLY or AZO more profitable?

O'Reilly Automotive has a net margin of 14.78% compared to O'Reilly Automotive's net margin of 14.70%. O'Reilly Automotive's return on equity of -56.06% beat AutoZone's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
O'Reilly Automotive	14.78%	-145.86%	17.31%
AutoZone	14.70%	-56.06%	16.23%

Which has higher earnings and valuation, ORLY or AZO?

AutoZone has higher revenue and earnings than O'Reilly Automotive. AutoZone is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than O'Reilly Automotive, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
O'Reilly Automotive	$15.81B	3.60	$2.35B	$39.40	24.53
AutoZone	$17.46B	2.76	$2.53B	$142.02	19.61

Do institutionals & insiders believe in ORLY or AZO?

85.0% of O'Reilly Automotive shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of AutoZone shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of O'Reilly Automotive shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of AutoZone shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate ORLY or AZO?

O'Reilly Automotive currently has a consensus target price of $1,123.64, suggesting a potential upside of 15.77%. AutoZone has a consensus target price of $3,066.53, suggesting a potential upside of 9.97%. Given AutoZone's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe O'Reilly Automotive is more favorable than AutoZone.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
O'Reilly Automotive	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
AutoZone	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.84

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ORLY or AZO?

AutoZone received 13 more outperform votes than O'Reilly Automotive when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.36% of users gave AutoZone an outperform vote while only 66.52% of users gave O'Reilly Automotive an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
O'Reilly Automotive	Outperform Votes 767 66.52%	Underperform Votes 386 33.48%
AutoZone	Outperform Votes 780 67.36%	Underperform Votes 378 32.64%

Does the media refer more to ORLY or AZO?

In the previous week, AutoZone had 61 more articles in the media than O'Reilly Automotive. MarketBeat recorded 74 mentions for AutoZone and 13 mentions for O'Reilly Automotive. AutoZone's average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat O'Reilly Automotive's score of 0.15 indicating that O'Reilly Automotive is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
O'Reilly Automotive	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
AutoZone	17 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	13 Neutral mention(s)	13 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

AutoZone beats O'Reilly Automotive on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.