PriceSmart (PSMT) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in PSMT or WMT?

80.5% of PriceSmart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.8% of Walmart shares are held by institutional investors. 17.1% of PriceSmart shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Walmart shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate PSMT or WMT?

Walmart has a consensus target price of $109.89, suggesting a potential upside of 8.47%. Given Walmart's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Walmart is more favorable than PriceSmart.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PriceSmart	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Walmart	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	29 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has higher valuation and earnings, PSMT or WMT?

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
PriceSmart	$4.91B	0.69	$138.88M	$4.74	23.10
Walmart	$680.99B	1.19	$19.44B	$2.34	43.30

Is PSMT or WMT a better dividend stock?

PriceSmart pays an annual dividend of $1.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Walmart pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. PriceSmart pays out 26.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Walmart pays out 40.2% 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. PriceSmart has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Walmart has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years. PriceSmart is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is PSMT or WMT more profitable?

PriceSmart has a net margin of 2.82% 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
PriceSmart	2.82%	12.46%	6.97%
Walmart	2.75%	21.76%	7.79%

Which has more volatility and risk, PSMT or WMT?

PriceSmart has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Walmart has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to PSMT or WMT?

In the previous week, Walmart had 121 more articles in the media than PriceSmart. MarketBeat recorded 131 mentions for Walmart and 10 mentions for PriceSmart. PriceSmart's average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat Walmart's score of 1.07 indicating that PriceSmart is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
PriceSmart	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Walmart	78 Very Positive mention(s)	18 Positive mention(s)	30 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Walmart beats PriceSmart on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.