KSS vs. COST, ANF, DDS, DKS, HD, LOW, M, TGT, WMT, and JWN
Should you be buying Kohl's stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Kohl's include Costco Wholesale (COST), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Dillard's (DDS), DICK'S Sporting Goods (DKS), Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Companies (LOW), Macy's (M), Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and Nordstrom (JWN). These companies are all part of the "retail/wholesale" sector.
Kohl's vs. Its Competitors
Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.
98.0% of Kohl's shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Kohl's shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are held 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.
Costco Wholesale has higher revenue and earnings than Kohl's. Kohl's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Costco Wholesale, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Kohl's currently has a consensus price target of $9.75, suggesting a potential upside of 4.56%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus price target of $1,037.48, suggesting a potential upside of 7.05%. Given Costco Wholesale's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Costco Wholesale is more favorable than Kohl's.
Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.92% compared to Kohl's' net margin of 0.75%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 30.48% beat Kohl's' return on equity.
In the previous week, Costco Wholesale had 147 more articles in the media than Kohl's. MarketBeat recorded 148 mentions for Costco Wholesale and 1 mentions for Kohl's. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat Kohl's' score of 0.72 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Kohl's pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kohl's pays out 45.9% 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. Costco Wholesale has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years.
Kohl's has a beta of 1.66, suggesting that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Costco Wholesale beats Kohl's on 15 of the 19 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 KSS 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 NYSE 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 (NYSE:KSS) was last updated on 7/15/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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