COST vs. WMT, TGT, BABA, MCD, HD, LOW, SBUX, CVS, BKNG, and TJX
Should you be buying Costco Wholesale stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Costco Wholesale include Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Alibaba Group (BABA), McDonald's (MCD), Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Companies (LOW), Starbucks (SBUX), CVS Health (CVS), Booking (BKNG), and TJX Companies (TJX). These companies are all part of the "retail/wholesale" sector.
Costco Wholesale vs.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations and community ranking.
Costco Wholesale received 333 more outperform votes than Walmart when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.64% of users gave Costco Wholesale an outperform vote while only 60.23% of users gave Walmart an outperform vote.
Walmart pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Walmart pays out 53.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Costco Wholesale pays out 26.5% 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. Walmart has increased its dividend for 51 consecutive years and Costco Wholesale has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years. Walmart is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
31.3% of Walmart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.0% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by institutional investors. 47.1% of Walmart shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale 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.
Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.58% compared to Walmart's net margin of 1.91%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 28.66% beat Walmart's return on equity.
Walmart currently has a consensus price target of $162.44, suggesting a potential upside of 15.29%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus price target of $550.16, suggesting a potential upside of 12.44%. Given Walmart's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Walmart is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.
In the previous week, Costco Wholesale had 27 more articles in the media than Walmart. MarketBeat recorded 46 mentions for Costco Wholesale and 19 mentions for Walmart. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 0.10 beat Walmart's score of -0.16 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Walmart has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
Summary
Costco Wholesale beats Walmart on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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
