BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) vs. Metro (OTCMKTS:MTRAF) Head to Head Review

Metro (OTCMKTS:MTRAF) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE:BJ) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Metro and BJ’s Wholesale Club, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Metro	0	1	3	0	2.75
BJ’s Wholesale Club	1	8	11	0	2.50

BJ’s Wholesale Club has a consensus price target of $106.06, indicating a potential upside of 1.03%. Given BJ’s Wholesale Club’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BJ’s Wholesale Club is more favorable than Metro.

Profitability

This table compares Metro and BJ’s Wholesale Club’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Metro	4.01%	14.24%	6.80%
BJ’s Wholesale Club	2.62%	27.40%	7.69%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.6% of BJ’s Wholesale Club shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of BJ’s Wholesale Club shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Metro and BJ’s Wholesale Club”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Metro	$15.74 billion	0.90	$727.05 million	$3.04	22.53
BJ’s Wholesale Club	$22.81 billion	0.58	$578.38 million	$4.57	22.97

Metro has higher earnings, but lower revenue than BJ’s Wholesale Club. Metro is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BJ’s Wholesale Club, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

BJ’s Wholesale Club beats Metro on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Metro

Metro Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a retailer, franchisor, distributor, and manufacturer in the food and pharmaceutical sectors in Canada. The company operates supermarkets, discount, neighborhood, and specialty stores that provide fresh and grocery products, baked goods, prepared food products, meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, frozen food products, bakery products, delicatessen items, and pastries. It also manufactures ready-to-eat meals, salads, dips, pastries, pies, breads, and cakes; generic drugs under Pro Doc trademark; and provides online grocery shopping services. In addition, the company offers its private label food products under Irresistibles, Selection, Our Harvest Best, Lucky Koi, Life Smart, Adonis, Phoenicia, and Premiere Moisson brands; and private label drug products comprising beauty and cosmetic products, over-the-counter medications, and personal care products, sold under the Personnelle brand name. It operates a network of food stores under various banners, including Metro, Metro Plus, Adonis, Super C, Marché Richelieu, Marché Ami, Première Moisson, Les 5 Saisons, and Food Basics, as well as drugstores primarily under the PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Santé, PJC Santé Beauté, Brunet, Brunet Plus, Brunet Clinique, Clini Plus, Metro Pharmacy, and Food Basics Pharmacy banners. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Montréal, Canada.

About BJ’s Wholesale Club

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. engages in the operation of membership warehouse clubs. Its product categories include grocery, household and pet, television and electronics, furniture, computer and tablets, patio and outdoor living, lawn and garden, baby and kids, toys, home, health and beauty, appliances, and jewelry. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Marlborough, MA.