Albertsons Companies, Inc. vs UNITED NATURAL FOODS, INC., two Grocery stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Albertsons sells groceries to shoppers; United Natural Foods distributes natural and organic products to the stores that do. Both run near the bottom of the margin scale, but they got there differently. Albertsons keeps 0.26% of sales and earns a steady 11.84% on equity. UNFI sits near breakeven, running a slight loss on a razor-thin operation, yet it throws off a striking 10.68% free cash yield, the highest in this group. Albertsons carries far heavier debt at 4.58 debt-to-equity against UNFI's 1.04, and it trades at 3.96 times book while UNFI fetches just 1.93. Albertsons pays a 4.42% dividend; UNFI pays none while it works through its own turnaround.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | ACI | UNFI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.74 | $48.78 |
| Market cap | $7.9B | $3.1B |
| Sector | Grocery | Grocery |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | — | +18.3% |
| P/B | 4.29 | 1.91 |
| P/S | 0.09 | 0.10 |
| EV/EBITDA | 12.4 | 12.7 |
| Revenue growth | +3.5% | -3.2% |
| Gross margin | 27.2% | 13.6% |
| Operating margin | -2.5% | 0.8% |
| Net margin | 0.3% | -0.1% |
| Return on equity | 11.8% | -2.4% |
| Return on assets | 0.8% | -0.5% |
| Return on invested capital | 5.6% | 1.5% |
| FCF yield | 6.7% | 10.8% |
| Dividend yield | 4.1% | — |
| Debt / equity | 4.58 | 1.04 |
| Current ratio | 0.86 | 1.33 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 9.07 | 5.04 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 5 / 9 | 6 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.