Critical Comparison: Grocery Outlet (GO) & Its Peers

Grocery Outlet (NASDAQ:GO) is one of 149 publicly-traded companies in the “Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Grocery Outlet to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Grocery Outlet and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grocery Outlet	$4.69 billion	-$224.91 million	-3.58
Grocery Outlet Competitors	$34.73 billion	$846.26 million	17.25

Grocery Outlet’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

Grocery Outlet has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Grocery Outlet’s peers have a beta of 0.44, suggesting that their average share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Grocery Outlet and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grocery Outlet	2	11	1	0	1.93
Grocery Outlet Competitors	2243	8276	10067	459	2.42

Grocery Outlet presently has a consensus price target of $10.50, indicating a potential downside of 24.30%. As a group, “Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail” companies have a potential upside of 57.05%. Given Grocery Outlet’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Grocery Outlet has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Grocery Outlet and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grocery Outlet	-8.04%	5.84%	1.79%
Grocery Outlet Competitors	-25.86%	3.87%	2.96%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.9% of Grocery Outlet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.0% of shares of all “Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail” companies are held by institutional investors. 5.6% of Grocery Outlet shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.7% of shares of all “Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Grocery Outlet peers beat Grocery Outlet on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About Grocery Outlet

Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. operates as a retailer of consumables and fresh products sold through independently operated stores in the United States. Its stores offer products in various categories, such as dairy and deli, produce, floral, fresh meat, seafood products, grocery, general merchandise, health and beauty care, frozen food, beer and wine, and ethnic products. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Emeryville, California.