COST vs. AAPL, AMZN, CASY, LULU, ROST, ULTA, BURL, HD, TGT, and WMT
Should you be buying Costco Wholesale stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Costco Wholesale include Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Casey's General Stores (CASY), lululemon athletica (LULU), Ross Stores (ROST), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), Burlington Stores (BURL), Home Depot (HD), Target (TGT), and Walmart (WMT).
Costco Wholesale vs. Its Competitors
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are related large-cap companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.
Apple has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Apple had 101 more articles in the media than Costco Wholesale. MarketBeat recorded 223 mentions for Apple and 122 mentions for Costco Wholesale. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat Apple's score of 1.02 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Apple has a net margin of 24.30% compared to Costco Wholesale's net margin of 2.94%. Apple's return on equity of 170.91% beat Costco Wholesale's return on equity.
67.7% of Apple shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Apple shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Apple presently has a consensus price target of $247.49, indicating a potential downside of 3.51%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus price target of $1,067.19, indicating a potential upside of 16.66%. Given Costco Wholesale's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Costco Wholesale is more favorable than Apple.
Apple has higher revenue and earnings than Costco Wholesale. Apple is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Costco Wholesale, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Apple pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Apple pays out 15.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Costco Wholesale pays out 28.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Apple has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Costco Wholesale has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Costco Wholesale is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Summary
Apple and Costco Wholesale tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding COST and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Costco Wholesale Competitors List
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This page (NASDAQ:COST) was last updated on 10/8/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
