Kroger (KR) Competitors

Kroger (NYSE:KR) and Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) 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 earnings, media sentiment, risk, community ranking, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

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 analysts rate KR or CASY?

Kroger presently has a consensus price target of $65.43, suggesting a potential upside of 5.79%. Casey's General Stores has a consensus price target of $424.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.17%. Given Kroger's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, 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	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

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, 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	$149.88B	0.30	$2.16B	$3.78	16.36
Casey's General Stores	$14.97B	1.00	$501.97M	$14.35	28.09

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer KR or CASY?

Kroger received 477 more outperform votes than Casey's General Stores when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.29% 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 1125 65.29%	Underperform Votes 598 34.71%
Casey's General Stores	Outperform Votes 648 63.04%	Underperform Votes 380 36.96%

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of 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 hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, KR or CASY?

Kroger has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Casey's General Stores has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to KR or CASY?

In the previous week, Kroger had 30 more articles in the media than Casey's General Stores. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for Kroger and 17 mentions for Casey's General Stores. Casey's General Stores' average media sentiment score of 0.92 beat Kroger's score of 0.30 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	10 Very Positive mention(s)	10 Positive mention(s)	20 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Casey's General Stores	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is KR or CASY a better dividend stock?

Kroger pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. 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. Kroger is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Kroger beats Casey's General Stores on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.