Is Casey’s Stock Priced Right Against Its Peer Group?

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Casey’s General Stores (CASY) sits in a peer group with Murphy USA, Kroger, Walmart and Costco. Over its latest four quarters, Casey’s grew revenue faster and earned a wider operating margin than any of them. Yet its stock trades at a lower P/E than Walmart’s or Costco’s. If price followed delivery, that order would be reversed. So how much less are you paying for each dollar of Casey’s profit?

How Much Less Do You Pay For Casey’s Profit?

You pay 32.7 times earnings for Casey’s stock, against 47.9 times for Costco. That leaves each dollar of Casey’s profit costing about 32% less. A P/E is the price of each dollar of a company’s yearly profit, meaning a Costco buyer pays far more for every dollar that company earns.

Costco delivered less for that higher price. Its revenue grew 10.1% over its latest four quarters, compared with 13.8% for Casey’s. Its operating margin came in at 3.9%, falling short of the 5.9% at Casey’s.

Walmart also trades at a higher P/E than Casey’s while growing more slowly on a thinner margin. Murphy USA is the only rival priced below Casey’s, at 16.1 times earnings. It also grew more slowly, at 10.3%, on a thinner 4.4% margin. Kroger is left out of the P/E comparison because it reported a loss in one of its four quarters.

How Casey’s Earns More On Each Dollar Of Sales

Casey’s operates convenience stores that sell prepared food and drinks alongside fuel and groceries. Walmart and Costco, meanwhile, are classed as merchandise retailers. Part of the margin gap may come from that difference in business, not only from how well each company is run.

Inside its stores, Casey’s kept 42.2% of sales as gross profit in fiscal Q1 2027. Management said the rise from a year earlier came mainly from a bigger share of prepared food and drinks. Those sales grew 7.4% in the quarter, and management said Casey’s prices a single-topping pizza about $3 below a national brand.

The revenue lead is less solid. Casey’s retail fuel sales rose $991 million in fiscal Q1 2027 as the average retail price of fuel climbed 33%, from $3.00 to $3.99 a gallon. Part of its growth therefore came from the price at the pump. Casey’s operating margin has a longer climb behind it: the margin widened each year, moving from 4.8% in the twelve months to July 2024 to 5.2% a year later, and reaching 5.9% in the twelve months to July 2026.

What Casey’s Expects For Fiscal 2027

For fiscal 2027, management expects EBITDA (profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) to grow 8% to 10%, keeping the 9% midpoint it gave in June 2026. It expects same-store sales inside its stores to grow 2% to 5%, and in fiscal Q1 2027 they rose 3.2%.

Fuel profit is harder to count on. Casey’s earned $0.478 a gallon on fuel in fiscal Q1 2027. Management, however, put August 2026 in the low $0.40s and called fuel margins in the quarter volatile.

At a lower P/E than Walmart and Costco, you are betting that Casey’s keeps growing what it sells inside its stores, whatever happens to fuel. Fiscal Q1 2027 kept that going. Same-store sales inside Casey’s stores are the number to watch at its next report, expected on or around December 7, 2026, when management also plans to update its annual guidance.

How To Act On CASY?

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