Target (TGT) Competitors

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

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 3.4%. 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 raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years. Dollar General is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

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 MarketBeat Community prefer TGT or DG?

Target received 6286 more outperform votes than Dollar General when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 89.71% of users gave Target an outperform vote while only 67.28% of users gave Dollar General an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Target	Outperform Votes 7487 89.71%	Underperform Votes 859 10.29%
Dollar General	Outperform Votes 1201 67.28%	Underperform Votes 584 32.72%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, 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	$107.41B	0.57	$4.14B	$9.43	14.17
Dollar General	$38.69B	0.39	$1.66B	$6.07	11.28

Do analysts recommend TGT or DG?

Target currently has a consensus target price of $158.23, suggesting a potential upside of 18.42%. Dollar General has a consensus target price of $98.18, suggesting a potential upside of 43.45%. Given Dollar General's higher possible upside, analysts clearly 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

Does the media prefer TGT or DG?

In the previous week, Dollar General had 2 more articles in the media than Target. MarketBeat recorded 27 mentions for Dollar General and 25 mentions for Target. Dollar General's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat Target's score of 0.34 indicating that Dollar General is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Target	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Dollar General	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, TGT or DG?

Target has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dollar General has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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

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

Summary

Target beats Dollar General on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.