Lowe's Companies (LOW) Competitors

Lowe's Companies (NYSE:LOW) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, risk, valuation and profitability.

Do analysts recommend LOW or COST?

Lowe's Companies currently has a consensus target price of $271.12, suggesting a potential upside of 19.53%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus target price of $1,037.48, suggesting a potential upside of 10.90%. Given Lowe's Companies' higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Lowe's Companies is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lowe's Companies	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	16 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.58
Costco Wholesale	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	19 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.68

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in LOW or COST?

74.1% of Lowe's Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Lowe's Companies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, LOW or COST?

Lowe's Companies has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less 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.

Does the media favor LOW or COST?

In the previous week, Costco Wholesale had 82 more articles in the media than Lowe's Companies. MarketBeat recorded 117 mentions for Costco Wholesale and 35 mentions for Lowe's Companies. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat Lowe's Companies' score of 1.11 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lowe's Companies	27 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Costco Wholesale	91 Very Positive mention(s)	10 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is LOW or COST more profitable?

Lowe's Companies has a net margin of 8.22% compared to Costco Wholesale's net margin of 2.92%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 30.48% beat Lowe's Companies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lowe's Companies	8.22%	-49.12%	15.07%
Costco Wholesale	2.92%	30.48%	10.52%

Is LOW or COST a better dividend stock?

Lowe's Companies pays an annual dividend of $4.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Lowe's Companies pays out 39.8% 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. Lowe's Companies has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years and Costco Wholesale has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Lowe's Companies is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, LOW or COST?

Costco Wholesale has higher revenue and earnings than Lowe's Companies. Lowe's Companies 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
Lowe's Companies	$83.67B	1.52	$6.96B	$12.07	18.79
Costco Wholesale	$254.45B	1.63	$7.37B	$17.63	53.06

Summary

Costco Wholesale beats Lowe's Companies on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.