Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. vs Sysco Corporation, two Grocery stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Sprouts Farmers Market sells natural groceries to shoppers; Sysco is the largest US foodservice distributor, feeding restaurants and institutions. Retailer versus distributor, and both surprisingly profitable for the food trade. Sprouts keeps 5.7% of sales against Sysco's 2.08%, a wide margin earned on a curated natural-foods basket. Sysco is far larger at $39.9B against $7.9B and pays a 2.5% dividend where Sprouts reinvests everything. Sprouts carries no net debt and throws off a 4.61% free cash yield, close to Sysco's 4.57%. Sysco trades at 22.96 times earnings, Sprouts at a gentler 15.79. Both run tight operations, but one stocks shelves for health-minded shoppers and the other loads trucks for kitchens.
Comparison updated 2026-07-11.
| Metric | SFM | SYY |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $80.80 | $83.83 |
| Market cap | $7.7B | $40.3B |
| Sector | Grocery | Grocery |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | — | -3.5% |
| P/E | 15.5 | 23.2 |
| P/B | 5.38 | 17.56 |
| P/S | 0.87 | 0.48 |
| EV/EBITDA | 8.9 | 13.0 |
| Revenue growth | +10.5% | +3.5% |
| Gross margin | 39.4% | 18.6% |
| Operating margin | 9.2% | 3.0% |
| Net margin | 5.7% | 2.1% |
| Return on equity | 35.4% | 75.6% |
| Return on assets | 11.9% | 6.2% |
| Return on invested capital | 35.8% | 15.2% |
| FCF yield | 4.7% | 4.5% |
| Dividend yield | — | 2.5% |
| Debt / equity | 0.00 | 5.58 |
| Current ratio | 0.92 | 1.33 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 4.06 | 9.20 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 8 / 9 | 7 / 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.