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 stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, valuation and earnings.

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%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of KR or CASY?

80.9% of Kroger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.6% of Casey's General Stores shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Kroger shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Casey's General Stores shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is KR or CASY a better dividend stock?

Kroger pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Casey's General Stores pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kroger pays out 33.9% 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 raised its dividend for 19 consecutive years and Casey's General Stores has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years.

Which has more risk and volatility, KR or CASY?

Kroger has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casey's General Stores has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor KR or CASY?

In the previous week, Kroger had 29 more articles in the media than Casey's General Stores. MarketBeat recorded 37 mentions for Kroger and 8 mentions for Casey's General Stores. Casey's General Stores' average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Kroger's score of 0.51 indicating that Casey's General Stores is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kroger	16 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	12 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Casey's General Stores	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer KR or CASY?

Kroger received 481 more outperform votes than Casey's General Stores when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.37% 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 1129 65.37%	Underperform Votes 598 34.63%
Casey's General Stores	Outperform Votes 648 63.04%	Underperform Votes 380 36.96%

Which has higher earnings and 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	$150.04B	0.28	$2.16B	$3.78	15.43
Casey's General Stores	$14.86B	0.98	$501.97M	$14.35	27.28

Do analysts recommend KR or CASY?

Kroger presently has a consensus price target of $65.93, suggesting a potential upside of 13.00%. Casey's General Stores has a consensus price target of $424.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.30%. Given Kroger's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Kroger is more favorable than Casey's General Stores.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kroger	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Casey's General Stores	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.55

Summary

Kroger beats Casey's General Stores on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.