COST vs. WMT, PSMT, TGT, DG, DLTR, BJ, OLLI, MNSO, FIVE, and HD
Should you be buying Costco Wholesale stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Costco Wholesale include Walmart (WMT), PriceSmart (PSMT), Target (TGT), Dollar General (DG), Dollar Tree (DLTR), BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ), Ollie's Bargain Outlet (OLLI), MINISO Group (MNSO), Five Below (FIVE), and Home Depot (HD).
Costco Wholesale vs.
Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, community ranking, profitability and institutional ownership.
Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Walmart pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Costco Wholesale pays out 30.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Walmart pays out 39.0% 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. Costco Wholesale has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Walmart has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years. Walmart is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.8% of Walmart shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 45.6% of Walmart shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Walmart has higher revenue and earnings than Costco Wholesale. Walmart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Costco Wholesale, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Walmart had 12 more articles in the media than Costco Wholesale. MarketBeat recorded 108 mentions for Walmart and 96 mentions for Costco Wholesale. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Walmart's score of 0.73 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Walmart has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus price target of $1,024.03, indicating a potential upside of 2.47%. Walmart has a consensus price target of $103.58, indicating a potential upside of 6.44%. Given Walmart's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Walmart is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.
Costco Wholesale received 286 more outperform votes than Walmart when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.02% of users gave Costco Wholesale an outperform vote while only 61.88% of users gave Walmart an outperform vote.
Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.93% compared to Walmart's net margin of 2.85%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 32.31% beat Walmart's return on equity.
Summary
Costco Wholesale beats Walmart on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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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.
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This page (NASDAQ:COST) was last updated on 5/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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