Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY), Target Corporation (TGT), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): Is This Retailer a Good Pick Now?

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) also has a lower valuation than Bed Bath & Beyond. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is trading $77.20 per share, with the total market cap of $253 billion. The market values Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) at 8.3 times its trailing EBITDA. In the first quarter this year, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) did not produce impressive operating results. Revenue increased by only around 1% to $114.19 billion, while the net income climbed up only 1.1% $3.78 billion. However, its earnings per share experienced a much higher growth, at 4.5%, than net income, to arrive at $1.15. This earnings per share growth was mainly due to its share repurchases in the first quarter. During the quarter, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) bought back 30 million shares, with the total transaction value of around $2.2 billion. It also paid out $1.6 billion in dividends, bringing the total cash return to shareholders to $3.8 billion in the first quarter. In the second quarter of 2013, the retailer is estimated to generate around $1.22 to $1.27 in earnings per share.

What is the best pick now?

In order to compare the companies, let’s look at their operating metrics:

Income investors might like Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and Wal-Mart with their good dividend yields of 2.4% while Bed Bath & Beyond does not pay any dividends. What attracts me the most to Bed Bath & Beyond is it’s high profitability, with the highest return on invested capital (ROIC) of the three companies at 26.2%. Wal-Mart’s ROIC was less than half of Bed Bath & Beyond’s at only 12.3%, while Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) was the least profitable business with the lowest ROIC at 6.3%. As a result, Bed Bath & Beyond could demand the premium valuation.

My Foolish take

As Bed Bath & Beyond has a strong balance sheet, high profitability, a reasonable valuation and potential share buybacks to return cash to shareholders, I personally think that this retailer is a good long-term pick for patient investors. Income investors could also choose Wal-Mart because of its market-leading position, good profitability and decent dividend yield.

The article Is This Retailer a Good Pick Now? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anh Hoang.

Anh HOANG has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Bed Bath & Beyond. Anh is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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