Costco Wholesale vs Dollar General
COST and DG side by side, both in variety stores. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How COST and DG compare
Costco Wholesale is the larger company, worth 15 times as much as Dollar General ($449B against $29.2B).
On earnings, Dollar General is cheaper: it trades at 17.2× trailing earnings, against 48.8× for Costco Wholesale.
Costco Wholesale grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (10.1% versus 4.8% for Dollar General).
Dollar General keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 3.9% compared with 3.0% at Costco Wholesale.
Both pay dividends: Costco Wholesale yields 0.69% and Dollar General 1.8%.
Costco Wholesale scores higher on the StockData Score (17 against 16 for Dollar General), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | COST | DG |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $449B | $29.2B |
| Share price | $1012.28 | $132.30 |
| Change, 1 year | 10.9% | 32.4% |
| Change, 5 years | 97.3% | −41.4% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.74 | 0.35 |
| Employees | 355K | 194K |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 17 (better) | 16 |
| Valuation score | 0 | 5 (better) |
| Growth score | 3 | 3 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 2 |
| Health score | 6 (better) | 2 |
| Dividend score | 3 | 4 (better) |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 48.8× | 17.2× (better) |
| P/S | 1.5× | 0.7× (better) |
| P/B | 12.5× | 3.1× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 30.2× | 9.1× (better) |
| P/FCF | 47.8× | 14.5× (better) |
| PEG | 3.58 | – |
| FCF yield | 2.1% | 6.9% (better) |
| Fair value | $644.97 | $160.51 |
| Margin of safety | −56.9% | 17.6% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 10.1% (better) | 4.8% |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 9.1% (better) | 4.8% |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 13.9% | 43.0% (better) |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 14.0% | 42.4% (better) |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 13.0% (better) | −8.4% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 12.8% | 31.2% (better) |
| Operating margin | 3.9% | 5.6% (better) |
| Net margin | 3.0% | 3.9% (better) |
| FCF margin | 3.1% | 4.6% (better) |
| Return on equity | 28.4% (better) | 19.7% |
| Return on invested capital | 45.8% (better) | 15.0% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 0.17 (better) | 0.49 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −1.05 | 0.85 (better) |
| Interest coverage | 80.6× | – |
| Current ratio | 1.06 | 1.21 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 9.38 (better) | 2.65 |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 7 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 0.69% | 1.8% (better) |
| Payout ratio | 26.6% | 30.5% |
| Years of dividend growth | 1 (better) | 0 |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | – | 10.4% |
| Buyback yield | 0.19% | – |
| Shareholder yield | 0.88% | 1.8% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 72.9% | 100% |
| Held by insiders | 0.18% | 0.47% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$13.6M | −$9.0M (better) |
| Superinvestors holding | 4 (better) | 3 |
| Short interest, % of float | 1.7% | 3.0% |
Go deeper
- COST stock overview
- COST income statement
- COST valuation and score
- DG stock overview
- DG income statement
- DG valuation and score
Other comparisons
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.