Is Safeway Inc. (SWY) a Buy?

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The Foolish bottom line

In closing, let’s compare Safeway, Kroger and Supervalu with each other based on the fundamentals to see which is the best value.




Forward P/E





Price to Sales (ttm)





Return on Equity (ttm)





Debt to Equity





Profit Margin





Qty. Revenue Growth (y-o-y)





Dividend Yield





Safeway




9.48



0.15



17.03%



190.01



1.35%



1.20%



3.02%




Kroger




10.87



0.19



36.87%



210.70



1.55%



12.80%



1.79%




SuperValu




14.66



0.04



-127.13%



95,971.43



-1.38%



-5.00%



0%




Advantage




Safeway



SuperValu



Kroger



Safeway



Kroger



Kroger




Safeway


Source: Yahoo! Finance, 4/25/2013 (does not include Safeway’s 1Q, SuperValu’s 4Q)

In the end, I wouldn’t bet on SuperValu to recover in 2013, considering that most of its metrics, except for some of the debt recently relieved by Cerberus, are trending in the wrong direction. The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) has the strongest fundamentals of the bunch, and expectations are high for the next quarter, both of which are reflected in its higher forward P/E.

Meanwhile, Safeway has the highest dividend, the lowest debt and the lowest forward valuation. Therefore, I think it’s safe to say that Safeway is a safe, undervalued growth stock that is a good value after its recent sell-off.

The article Is It Safe to Buy Safeway? originally appeared on Fool.com.

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