In celebration of March Madness, the Motley Fool is pitting 16 editor-selected companies in a fierce Stock Madness bracket. We will show you how the companies rank based on five key metrics, but your votes will determine the winner of each match-up.
This matchup is Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) vs. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX). Using five short-of-scientific-but-carefully chosen criteria, let's determine which is the better buy according to the numbers:
|
Factor |
Procter & Gamble |
Starbucks | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cheapness |
15.2 |
33.4 | |
|
Growth |
7.7% |
11.5% | |
|
Operations |
14.42% |
5.31% | |
|
Balance Sheet |
.45 |
.16 | |
|
CAPS Rating |
|
|
Round 1: Cheapness
Advantage: Procter & Gamble. Cheapness is determined by P/E ratio. The lower the better. Be careful of earnings near zero that skew the ratio, one-time gains and losses, and pasts that aren’t indicative of futures (the more dynamic the industry, the more this is true).
Round 2: Growth
Advantage: Starbucks. Growth here is the trailing 5-year EPS growth rate. This trailing earnings growth helps put notoriously-optimistic Wall Street projections in perspective.
Round 3: Operations
Advantage: Procter & Gamble. Net margin percentage shows how efficiently a company turns revenue into profit. The more similar the business models, the more relevant the comparison.
Round 4: Balance sheet
Advantage: Starbucks. As with net margins, the debt to capital ratio is most relevant in comparing companies in similar industries. In this battle we give the nod to the lower-debt company, but attention should also be paid to the cost of debt, interest coverage ratios, and the stability of the business (the more stable a company’s operations, the more debt it can safely carry).
Round 5: CAPS rating
Advantage: Procter & Gamble. A company’s CAPS rating is our community’s opinion of the stock. You can get more information on your stocks -- and our community’s opinions of those stocks -- by clicking over to CAPS area.
Each of these five rankings need more context to determine how these companies stack up against each other and bracket competitors Buffalo Wild Wings (Nasdaq: BWLD) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG). But these basic numbers suggest that Procter & Gamble is a better buy. It’s up to you, though. Vote for the winner in the poll located below the bracket.
