Dollar General (DG) Competitors

Target (NYSE:TGT) and Dollar General (NYSE:DG) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk, community ranking, dividends, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

Do analysts prefer TGT or DG?

Target currently has a consensus price target of $160.57, suggesting a potential upside of 22.12%. Dollar General has a consensus price target of $98.27, suggesting a potential upside of 28.63%. Given Dollar General's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Dollar General is more favorable than Target.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Target	1 Sell rating(s)	16 Hold rating(s)	15 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
Dollar General	1 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.39

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of TGT or DG?

79.7% of Target shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.8% of Dollar General shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Target shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Dollar General shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, TGT or DG?

Target has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dollar General has a beta of 0.44, suggesting that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is TGT or DG a better dividend stock?

Target pays an annual dividend of $4.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Dollar General pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Target pays out 47.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Dollar General pays out 38.9% 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. Target has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years. Target is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is TGT or DG more profitable?

Target has a net margin of 4.06% compared to Dollar General's net margin of 3.33%. Target's return on equity of 31.11% beat Dollar General's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Target	4.06%	31.11%	7.77%
Dollar General	3.33%	18.85%	4.27%

Does the media refer more to TGT or DG?

In the previous week, Dollar General had 23 more articles in the media than Target. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Dollar General and 3 mentions for Target. Target's average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Dollar General's score of 0.63 indicating that Target is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Target	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Dollar General	10 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, TGT or DG?

Target has higher revenue and earnings than Dollar General. Dollar General is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Target, 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
Target	$107.57B	0.56	$4.14B	$9.43	13.94
Dollar General	$40.17B	0.42	$1.66B	$6.07	12.59

Does the MarketBeat Community favor TGT or DG?

Target received 6285 more outperform votes than Dollar General when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 89.73% of users gave Target an outperform vote while only 67.26% of users gave Dollar General an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Target	Outperform Votes 7485 89.73%	Underperform Votes 857 10.27%
Dollar General	Outperform Votes 1200 67.26%	Underperform Votes 584 32.74%

Summary

Target beats Dollar General on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.