Costco Wholesale (COST) Competitors

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, risk, community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Do analysts recommend WMT or COST?

Walmart presently has a consensus target price of $103.58, suggesting a potential upside of 9.14%. Costco Wholesale has a consensus target price of $1,024.03, suggesting a potential upside of 4.57%. Given Walmart's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Walmart is more favorable than Costco Wholesale.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Walmart	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	30 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.97
Costco Wholesale	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	21 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.70

Is WMT or COST more profitable?

Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.93% compared to Walmart's net margin of 2.85%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 32.31% beat Walmart's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Walmart	2.85%	21.87%	7.84%
Costco Wholesale	2.93%	32.31%	10.55%

Is WMT or COST a better dividend stock?

Walmart pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $4.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Walmart pays out 39.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Costco Wholesale pays out 27.1% 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 Costco Wholesale has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Walmart is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to WMT or COST?

In the previous week, Walmart had 45 more articles in the media than Costco Wholesale. MarketBeat recorded 173 mentions for Walmart and 128 mentions for Costco Wholesale. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Walmart's score of 0.63 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Walmart	78 Very Positive mention(s)	18 Positive mention(s)	31 Neutral mention(s)	28 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Costco Wholesale	78 Very Positive mention(s)	11 Positive mention(s)	18 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, WMT or COST?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Walmart	$680.99B	1.12	$15.51B	$2.41	39.38
Costco Wholesale	$264.09B	1.65	$7.37B	$17.13	57.17

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

26.8% of Walmart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by institutional investors. 45.6% of Walmart shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer WMT or COST?

Costco Wholesale received 285 more outperform votes than Walmart when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.01% of users gave Costco Wholesale an outperform vote while only 61.91% of users gave Walmart an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Walmart	Outperform Votes 1583 61.91%	Underperform Votes 974 38.09%
Costco Wholesale	Outperform Votes 1868 72.01%	Underperform Votes 726 27.99%

Which has more risk and volatility, WMT or COST?

Walmart has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Costco Wholesale beats Walmart on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.