Kroger (KR) Competitors

Kroger (NYSE:KR) and Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation and media sentiment.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in KR or CASY?

80.9% of Kroger shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.6% of Casey's General Stores shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Kroger shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Casey's General Stores shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to KR or CASY?

In the previous week, Kroger had 16 more articles in the media than Casey's General Stores. MarketBeat recorded 42 mentions for Kroger and 26 mentions for Casey's General Stores. Kroger's average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Casey's General Stores' score of 0.94 indicating that Kroger is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kroger	34 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Casey's General Stores	11 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, KR or CASY?

Kroger has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casey's General Stores has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is KR or CASY a better dividend stock?

Kroger pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Casey's General Stores pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Kroger pays out 34.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Casey's General Stores pays out 13.9% 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. Kroger has increased its dividend for 19 consecutive years and Casey's General Stores has increased its dividend for 24 consecutive years.

Is KR or CASY more profitable?

Casey's General Stores has a net margin of 3.57% compared to Kroger's net margin of 1.85%. Kroger's return on equity of 27.73% beat Casey's General Stores' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kroger	1.85%	27.73%	6.35%
Casey's General Stores	3.57%	17.17%	7.99%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor KR or CASY?

Kroger received 482 more outperform votes than Casey's General Stores when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.31% of users gave Kroger an outperform vote while only 63.04% of users gave Casey's General Stores an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Kroger	Outperform Votes 1137 65.31%	Underperform Votes 604 34.69%
Casey's General Stores	Outperform Votes 655 63.04%	Underperform Votes 384 36.96%

Do analysts recommend KR or CASY?

Kroger currently has a consensus target price of $66.50, indicating a potential downside of 3.78%. Casey's General Stores has a consensus target price of $430.33, indicating a potential downside of 6.61%. Given Kroger's higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Kroger is more favorable than Casey's General Stores.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kroger	2 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Casey's General Stores	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.85

Which has better earnings & valuation, KR or CASY?

Kroger has higher revenue and earnings than Casey's General Stores. Kroger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Casey's General Stores, 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
Kroger	$147.12B	0.31	$2.16B	$3.67	18.83
Casey's General Stores	$15.55B	1.10	$501.97M	$14.35	32.11

Summary

Kroger and Casey's General Stores tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.