COST vs NOW: Which Is the Better Buy?

Side-by-side comparison of Costco Wholesale Corporation and ServiceNow, Inc. β€” fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals. Updated 2026-09-25.
Costco Wholesale Corporation Β· Consumer Defensive
$896.48
+24.7% upside to fair value
Med Conviction Grade B High Quality
VS
ServiceNow, Inc. Β· Technology
$139.82
+16.2% upside to fair value
Med Conviction Grade A- High Quality
QuantHub Verdict
COST has more upside to fair value (+24.7%). These are model outputs β€” not personalized investment advice. See all research β†’
Valuation & Fundamentals
Metric COST NOW
Current Price $896.48 $139.82
Fair Value Estimate $1,117.50 $162.50
Upside to Fair Value +24.7% +16.2%
Market Cap $397.6B $144.6B
Forward P/E β€” β€”
EV / EBITDA 32.7x 43.1x
Price / Sales 1.3x 9.8x
Price / FCF 42.4x 31.5x
Revenue Growth YoY +11.1% +24.0%
Gross Margin 17.5% 74.8%
Operating Margin 3.9% 11.4%
Return on Equity 28.0% 13.8%
Dividend Yield 0.62% 0%
FCF Yield 2.36% 3.17%
Analyst Consensus Strong Buy Strong Buy
Investment Thesis
COST β€” Costco Wholesale Corporation
Costco Wholesale Corporation operates a global network of membership-based warehouse clubs, selling branded and private-label merchandise across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Spain, France, Iceland, and China, supplemented by pharmacies, optical centers, food courts, hearing aid centers, tire installation, 636 gas stations, and e-com…
NOW β€” ServiceNow, Inc.
ServiceNow provides a cloud-based enterprise workflow platform spanning IT service management, operations, employee workflows, CRM, AI orchestration and security. Business quality is high because its common data model, deeply embedded workflows and cross-department deployments create meaningful switching costs, while roughly 90% of the Fortune 500 use the platform and more than 85 billion workflo…
Accumulation Zones
Metric COST NOW
Zone Low $838.12 $121.88
Zone High $949.88 $138.12
In Buy Zone? Yes No
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