Question

Please provide a financial analysis between each company and explain in extensive detail each field as well as compare each one with the industrial average.

WMT			COST
Cash Flow Analysis			Cash Flow Analysis
Price / Cash Flow	9.11		Price / Cash Flow	15.23
Price / Free Cash Flow	--		Price / Free Cash Flow	--
Cash Flow / Net Income	2.87		Cash Flow / Net Income	1.88
Dividend Payout Ratio	62.10		Dividend Payout Ratio	133.38
Cash Generated / Cash Req	1.75		Cash Generated / Cash Req	0.85
Cash Dividend Coverage	1.61		Cash Dividend Coverage	0.75
Cash-oper / Sales	5.66		Cash-oper / Sales	4.09
Eff Interest Rate	30.42		Eff Interest Rate	30.28

	Industry Avg
Price/Earnings	22.1
Price/Book	3.8
Price/Sales	0.6
Price/Cash Flow	9.6
Dividend Yield %	1.9

Answer 1

Stock WMT has better operating margin than stock COST which tells that the WMT company is running its operation more smoothly than COST.

However, stock COST has a higher return on assets than stock WMT which shows that the stock COST is able to use its investment more profitably then stock WMT.

Also return on investment for stock COST is higher than stock WMT which shows that the company COST is able to use funds more efficiently than stock WMT.

Higher asset turnover of the stock COST tells that the company is able to use its assets more efficiently.