COST vs. WMT, PSMT, TJX, TGT, ROST, DG, DLTR, BURL, HD, and BABA
Should you be buying Costco Wholesale stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Costco Wholesale include Walmart (WMT), PriceSmart (PSMT), TJX Companies (TJX), Target (TGT), Ross Stores (ROST), Dollar General (DG), Dollar Tree (DLTR), Burlington Stores (BURL), Home Depot (HD), and Alibaba Group (BABA). These companies are all part of the "retail/wholesale" sector.
Costco Wholesale vs. Its Competitors
Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) 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 analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, media sentiment, valuation and earnings.
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 29.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Walmart pays out 40.2% 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.
Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus price target of $1,034.79, suggesting a potential upside of 4.95%. Walmart has a consensus price target of $106.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.40%. Given Walmart's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Walmart is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.
Costco Wholesale has a beta of 1, indicating that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Walmart has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.92% compared to Walmart's net margin of 2.75%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 30.48% beat Walmart's return on equity.
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.
68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.8% of Walmart shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 45.6% of Walmart shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Walmart had 25 more articles in the media than Costco Wholesale. MarketBeat recorded 155 mentions for Walmart and 130 mentions for Costco Wholesale. Walmart's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat Costco Wholesale's score of 1.16 indicating that Walmart is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Walmart beats Costco Wholesale on 11 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 7/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
