PriceSmart (PSMT) Competitors

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and PriceSmart (NASDAQ:PSMT) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, valuation, dividends and risk.

Which has more risk and volatility, WMT or PSMT?

Walmart has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PriceSmart has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is WMT or PSMT more profitable?

PriceSmart has a net margin of 2.81% compared to Walmart's net margin of 2.75%. Walmart's return on equity of 21.76% beat PriceSmart's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Walmart	2.75%	21.76%	7.79%
PriceSmart	2.81%	12.40%	6.90%

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of WMT or PSMT?

26.8% of Walmart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.5% of PriceSmart shares are owned by institutional investors. 45.6% of Walmart shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.1% of PriceSmart shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer WMT or PSMT?

Walmart received 1282 more outperform votes than PriceSmart when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.53% of users gave PriceSmart an outperform vote while only 62.17% of users gave Walmart an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Walmart	Outperform Votes 1602 62.17%	Underperform Votes 975 37.83%
PriceSmart	Outperform Votes 320 66.53%	Underperform Votes 161 33.47%

Is WMT or PSMT a better dividend stock?

Walmart pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. PriceSmart pays an annual dividend of $1.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Walmart pays out 40.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PriceSmart pays out 26.9% 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 raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years and PriceSmart has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. PriceSmart is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, WMT or PSMT?

Walmart has higher revenue and earnings than PriceSmart. PriceSmart is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Walmart, 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
Walmart	$685.09B	1.14	$19.44B	$2.34	41.83
PriceSmart	$4.91B	0.64	$138.88M	$4.68	21.84

Does the media prefer WMT or PSMT?

In the previous week, Walmart had 124 more articles in the media than PriceSmart. MarketBeat recorded 125 mentions for Walmart and 1 mentions for PriceSmart. Walmart's average media sentiment score of 1.26 beat PriceSmart's score of 0.78 indicating that Walmart is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Walmart	90 Very Positive mention(s)	13 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	6 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
PriceSmart	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend WMT or PSMT?

Walmart presently has a consensus price target of $106.50, suggesting a potential upside of 8.81%. Given Walmart's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Walmart is more favorable than PriceSmart.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Walmart	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	29 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.97
PriceSmart	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Summary

Walmart beats PriceSmart on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.