Kohl's (KSS) Competitors

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) and Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Do analysts prefer COST or KSS?

Costco Wholesale presently has a consensus price target of $1,037.48, indicating a potential upside of 8.61%. Kohl's has a consensus price target of $9.75, indicating a potential upside of 4.11%. Given Costco Wholesale's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Costco Wholesale is more favorable than Kohl's.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Costco Wholesale	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	19 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.68
Kohl's	7 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.53

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, COST or KSS?

Costco Wholesale has higher revenue and earnings than Kohl's. Kohl's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Costco Wholesale, 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
Costco Wholesale	$254.45B	1.66	$7.37B	$17.63	54.18
Kohl's	$16.22B	0.06	$109M	$1.09	8.59

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in COST or KSS?

68.5% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of Kohl's shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Costco Wholesale shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Kohl's shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is COST or KSS a better dividend stock?

Costco Wholesale pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kohl's pays an annual dividend of $0.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Costco Wholesale pays out 29.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kohl's pays out 45.9% 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. Costco Wholesale has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years.

Is COST or KSS more profitable?

Costco Wholesale has a net margin of 2.92% compared to Kohl's' net margin of 0.75%. Costco Wholesale's return on equity of 30.48% beat Kohl's' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Costco Wholesale	2.92%	30.48%	10.52%
Kohl's	0.75%	4.71%	1.27%

Which has more risk and volatility, COST or KSS?

Costco Wholesale has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kohl's has a beta of 1.66, meaning that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to COST or KSS?

In the previous week, Costco Wholesale had 153 more articles in the media than Kohl's. MarketBeat recorded 155 mentions for Costco Wholesale and 2 mentions for Kohl's. Costco Wholesale's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Kohl's' score of 0.72 indicating that Costco Wholesale is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Costco Wholesale	97 Very Positive mention(s)	22 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Kohl's	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Costco Wholesale beats Kohl's on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.