Costco Wholesale vs PriceSmart
COST and PSMT 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 PSMT compare
Costco Wholesale is the larger company, worth 88 times as much as PriceSmart ($449B against $5.1B).
On earnings, PriceSmart is cheaper: it trades at 31.8× trailing earnings, against 48.8× for Costco Wholesale.
PriceSmart grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (10.2% versus 10.1% for Costco Wholesale).
Costco Wholesale keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 3.0% compared with 2.8% at PriceSmart.
Both pay dividends: Costco Wholesale yields 0.69% and PriceSmart 0.84%.
Costco Wholesale scores higher on the StockData Score (17 against 13 for PriceSmart), 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 | PSMT |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $449B | $5.1B |
| Share price | $1012.28 | $165.70 |
| Change, 1 year | 10.9% | 36.9% |
| Change, 5 years | 97.3% | 116% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.74 | 0.54 |
| Employees | 355K | 12K |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 17 (better) | 13 |
| Valuation score | 0 | 1 (better) |
| Growth score | 3 (better) | 2 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 3 |
| Health score | 6 | 6 |
| Dividend score | 3 (better) | 1 |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 48.8× | 31.8× (better) |
| P/S | 1.5× | 0.9× (better) |
| P/B | 12.5× | 3.7× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 30.2× | 14.1× (better) |
| P/FCF | 47.8× (better) | 69.4× |
| PEG | 3.58 | 2.53 (better) |
| FCF yield | 2.1% (better) | 1.4% |
| Fair value | $644.97 | $117.00 |
| Margin of safety | −56.9% | −41.6% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 10.1% | 10.2% (better) |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 9.1% | 9.6% (better) |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 13.9% (better) | 10.4% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 14.0% (better) | 9.7% |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 13.0% | 13.6% (better) |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 12.8% | 17.6% (better) |
| Operating margin | 3.9% | 4.5% (better) |
| Net margin | 3.0% (better) | 2.8% |
| FCF margin | 3.1% (better) | 1.3% |
| Return on equity | 28.4% (better) | 12.3% |
| Return on invested capital | 45.8% (better) | 15.8% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 0.17 | 0.13 (better) |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −1.05 | −0.39 |
| Interest coverage | 80.6× (better) | 16.3× |
| Current ratio | 1.06 | 1.28 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 9.38 (better) | 6.03 |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 (better) | 6 |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 0.69% | 0.84% (better) |
| Payout ratio | 26.6% | – |
| Years of dividend growth | 1 (better) | 0 |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | – | 12.5% |
| Buyback yield | 0.19% | 0.19% (better) |
| Shareholder yield | 0.88% | 1.0% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 72.9% | 91.1% |
| Held by insiders | 0.18% | 16.5% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$13.6M (better) | −$13.7M |
| Superinvestors holding | 4 | – |
| Short interest, % of float | 1.7% | 7.0% |
Go deeper
- COST stock overview
- COST income statement
- COST valuation and score
- PSMT stock overview
- PSMT income statement
- PSMT valuation and score
Other comparisons
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.