Financial Review: Village Super Market (NASDAQ:VLGEA) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT)

Village Super Market (NASDAQ:VLGEA) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Village Super Market and Walmart, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Village Super Market	0	0	0	0	0.00
Walmart	0	2	29	1	2.97

Walmart has a consensus price target of $106.67, suggesting a potential upside of 7.45%. Given Walmart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Walmart is more favorable than Village Super Market.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Village Super Market and Walmart”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Village Super Market	$2.24 billion	0.26	$50.46 million	$3.79	10.20
Walmart	$680.99 billion	1.16	$19.44 billion	$2.34	42.42

Walmart has higher revenue and earnings than Village Super Market. Village Super Market is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Walmart, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

39.0% of Village Super Market shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.8% of Walmart shares are held by institutional investors. 56.8% of Village Super Market shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 45.6% of Walmart shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Village Super Market has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Walmart has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Village Super Market pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Walmart pays an annual dividend of $0.94 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Village Super Market pays out 26.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Walmart pays out 40.2% 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. Walmart has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years. Village Super Market is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Village Super Market and Walmart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Village Super Market	2.45%	12.55%	5.87%
Walmart	2.75%	21.76%	7.79%

Summary

Walmart beats Village Super Market on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Village Super Market

Village Super Market, Inc. operates a chain of supermarkets in the United States. The company offers grocery, meat, produce, dairy, deli, seafood, prepared foods, and bakery and frozen foods. It also provides non-food products, including health and beauty care, general merchandise, liquor, and pharmacy products through retail and online stores. Village Super Market, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Springfield, New Jersey.

About Walmart

Walmart Inc. engages in the operation of retail, wholesale, other units, and eCommerce worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. It operates supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash and carry stores, and discount stores under Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands; membership-only warehouse clubs; ecommerce websites, such as walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, PhonePe and other sites; and mobile commerce applications. The company offers grocery and consumables, including dairy, meat, bakery, deli, produce, dry, chilled or frozen packaged foods, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, floral, snack foods, candy, other grocery items, health and beauty aids, paper goods, laundry and home care, baby care, pet supplies, and other consumable items; fuel, tobacco and other categories. It is also involved in the provision of health and wellness products covering pharmacy, optical and hearing services, and over-the-counter drugs and other medical products; and home and apparel including home improvement, outdoor living, gardening, furniture, apparel, jewelry, tools and power equipment, housewares, toys, seasonal items, mattresses and tire and battery centers. In addition, the company offers consumer electronics and accessories, software, video games, office supplies, appliances, and third-party gift cards. Further, it operates digital payment platforms; and offers financial services and related products, including money transfers, bill payments, money orders, check cashing, prepaid access, co-branded credit cards, installment lending, and earned wage access. Additionally, the company markets lines of merchandise under private brands, including Allswell, Athletic Works, Equate, and Free Assembly. The company was formerly known as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and changed its name to Walmart Inc. in February 2018. Walmart Inc. was founded in 1945 and is based in Bentonville, Arkansas.