Costco Wholesale (COST) Competitors

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are related large-cap companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Is AAPL or COST a better dividend stock?

Apple pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Apple pays out 16.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Costco Wholesale pays out 29.5% 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. Apple has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Costco Wholesale has raised 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.

Is AAPL or COST more profitable?

Apple has a net margin of 24.30% compared to Costco Wholesale's net margin of 2.92%. Apple's return on equity of 167.24% beat Costco Wholesale's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Apple	24.30%	167.24%	31.35%
Costco Wholesale	2.92%	30.48%	10.52%

Which has more volatility and risk, AAPL or COST?

Apple has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate AAPL or COST?

Apple currently has a consensus price target of $235.27, indicating a potential upside of 11.42%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus price target of $1,037.48, indicating a potential upside of 6.92%. Given Apple's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Apple is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Apple	2 Sell rating(s)	11 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.59
Costco Wholesale	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	19 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.68

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of AAPL or COST?

67.7% of Apple shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Apple shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, AAPL or COST?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Apple	$391.04B	8.07	$93.74B	$6.42	32.89
Costco Wholesale	$254.45B	1.69	$7.37B	$17.63	55.04

Does the media refer more to AAPL or COST?

In the previous week, Apple had 134 more articles in the media than Costco Wholesale. MarketBeat recorded 277 mentions for Apple and 143 mentions for Costco Wholesale. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Apple's score of 0.77 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Apple	157 Very Positive mention(s)	28 Positive mention(s)	58 Neutral mention(s)	26 Negative mention(s)	6 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Costco Wholesale	89 Very Positive mention(s)	19 Positive mention(s)	22 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Apple beats Costco Wholesale on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.