Costco Wholesale vs Walmart
COST and WMT 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 WMT compare
Walmart is the larger company, worth 2.2 times as much as Costco Wholesale ($980B against $449B).
On earnings, Walmart is cheaper: it trades at 44.6× trailing earnings, against 48.8× for Costco Wholesale.
Costco Wholesale grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (10.1% versus 6.2% for Walmart).
Costco Wholesale keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 3.0% compared with 3.0% at Walmart.
Both pay dividends: Costco Wholesale yields 0.69% and Walmart 0.79%.
Costco Wholesale scores higher on the StockData Score (17 against 15 for Walmart), 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 | WMT |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $449B | $980B |
| Share price | $1012.28 | $123.51 |
| Change, 1 year | 10.9% | 20.5% |
| Change, 5 years | 97.3% | 147% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.74 | 0.58 |
| Employees | 355K | 2.1M |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 17 (better) | 15 |
| Valuation score | 0 | 0 |
| Growth score | 3 | 3 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 4 |
| Health score | 6 (better) | 4 |
| Dividend score | 3 | 4 (better) |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 48.8× | 44.6× (better) |
| P/S | 1.5× | 1.3× (better) |
| P/B | 12.5× | 10.0× (better) |
| EV/EBITDA | 30.2× | 21.6× (better) |
| P/FCF | 47.8× (better) | 72.5× |
| PEG | 3.58 | 1.83 (better) |
| FCF yield | 2.1% (better) | 1.4% |
| Fair value | $644.97 | $72.78 |
| Margin of safety | −56.9% (better) | −69.7% |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 10.1% (better) | 6.2% |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 9.1% (better) | 5.0% |
| Net income growth (TTM) | 13.9% (better) | 3.4% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | 14.0% (better) | 4.1% |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 13.0% (better) | 11.5% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 12.8% | 25.2% (better) |
| Operating margin | 3.9% | 4.4% (better) |
| Net margin | 3.0% (better) | 3.0% |
| FCF margin | 3.1% (better) | 1.8% |
| Return on equity | 28.4% (better) | 23.4% |
| Return on invested capital | 45.8% (better) | 19.0% |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 0.17 (better) | 0.51 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −1.05 | 0.82 (better) |
| Interest coverage | 80.6× (better) | 17.4× |
| Current ratio | 1.06 (better) | 0.77 |
| Altman Z-score | 9.38 (better) | 6.35 |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 8 (better) |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 0.69% | 0.79% (better) |
| Payout ratio | 26.6% | 34.9% |
| Years of dividend growth | 1 | 17 (better) |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | – | 5.5% |
| Buyback yield | 0.19% | 0.71% (better) |
| Shareholder yield | 0.88% | 1.5% (better) |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 72.9% | 37.4% |
| Held by insiders | 0.18% | 45.0% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$13.6M (better) | −$2.9B |
| Superinvestors holding | 4 (better) | 3 |
| Short interest, % of float | 1.7% | 1.9% |
Go deeper
- COST stock overview
- COST income statement
- COST valuation and score
- WMT stock overview
- WMT income statement
- WMT valuation and score
Other comparisons
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.