COST vs MA: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Costco Wholesale Corporation and Mastercard Incorporated — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-07-17.
Costco Wholesale Corporation · Consumer Defensive
$947.50
-1.4% upside to fair value
Grade C
High Quality
VS
Mastercard Incorporated · Financial Services
$543.60
+45.0% upside to fair value
High Conviction
Grade A
High Quality
QuantHub Verdict
MA has more upside to fair value
(+45.0%).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
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Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
COST |
MA |
| Current Price |
$947.50 |
$543.60 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$933.84 |
$788.22 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
-1.4%
|
+45.0%
|
| Market Cap |
$420.2B |
$480.3B |
| Forward P/E |
47.6x
|
—
|
| EV / EBITDA |
28.3x
|
23.3x
|
| Price / Sales |
1.4x
|
14.2x
|
| Price / FCF |
47.7x
|
27.1x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+11.6%
|
+15.8%
|
| Gross Margin |
12.9%
|
83.0%
|
| Operating Margin |
3.8%
|
59.4%
|
| Return on Equity |
28.3%
|
206.1%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0% |
0.62% |
| FCF Yield |
2.1%
|
3.69%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Buy
|
Strong Buy
|
Investment Thesis
Costco Wholesale Corporation operates as a membership-only warehouse club offering a wide range of merchandise at low prices. The company exhibits high business quality with a durable competitive moat driven by cost advantages, strong brand loyalty, and efficient operations, reflected in a robust ROE of 28.3% and solid revenue growth of 11.6% in the most recent quarter. Despite these strengths, t…
Mastercard operates a global two-sided payments network that connects issuers, acquirers, merchants and cardholders, monetizing payment volumes and an expanding set of security, data, authentication and other value-added services. Business quality is high: the network benefits from powerful acceptance and scale effects, 83.0% gross margin, 59.4% operating margin, 45.9% net margin, 206.1% ROE, and…
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
COST |
MA |
| Zone Low |
$700.38 |
$591.16 |
| Zone High |
$793.76 |
$669.99 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
Yes
|