Why is Alimentation Couche-Tard considered a compounder?

Couche-Tard has consistently acquired convenience chains globally, integrated them under the Circle K brand, and improved their operating metrics through procurement scale, best-practice sharing, and private label development — then reinvested cash into more acquisitions. This acquisition-and-improve flywheel has compounded shareholder value for decades. The company started as a small Quebec operator and built one of the world's largest convenience retail networks through disciplined serial acquisitions.

What is Murphy USA's Walmart co-location strategy?

Murphy USA places most of its fuel stations adjacent to Walmart Supercenter locations, capturing fuel customers who are already visiting Walmart for shopping. The strategy generates traffic without requiring Murphy USA to independently attract customers — Walmart's existing customer flow provides a baseline of fuel and convenience purchasers. The co-location agreements give Murphy USA a differentiated site selection strategy that has been difficult for competitors to replicate at scale.

How does EV adoption affect convenience store fuel retailers?

Electric vehicles don't buy gasoline, which is the primary traffic driver for most convenience stores and fuel retailers. Long-term EV adoption trends represent a structural risk to fuel volume and the in-store traffic it generates. Convenience retailers are responding by adding EV charging stations, but the business model for EV charging is still evolving — charging takes longer than fueling, requiring different real estate and customer experience design than traditional fuel retail.

brimindinvest.com / compare / atd-vs-musaLIVE

ATD

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. · Consumer Staples - Convenience Stores & Fuel

N/A

N/A this month

VERSUS

⟷

COMPARE

MUSA

Murphy USA Inc. · Consumer Staples - Fuel Retail & Convenience

$551.26

-3.22% this month

Scoreboard verdict

Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin

ATD

0

MUSA

0

MIXED SETUP

Comparison scoreboard

MIXED SETUP

AI Score

ATD N/A

MUSA 52.4

1Y Return

ATD N/A

MUSA +36.09%

Fwd P/E

ATD N/A

MUSA 18.80

Target Up.

ATD N/A

MUSA +2.84%

Op. Margin

ATD N/A

MUSA N/A

Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026

Quick take

ATD vs MUSA Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside

ATD (Alimentation Couche-Tard) is the global Circle K convenience store giant with 16,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia, while MUSA (Murphy USA) is a focused U.S. fuel retailer with approximately 1,700 Walmart-adjacent locations and an aggressive buyback strategy. Couche-Tard is much larger with international scale; Murphy USA is a more focused U.S. fuel retail value play.

ATD vs MUSA is global convenience store scale versus focused U.S. fuel-and-convenience value model — Couche-Tard's acquisition-driven international growth against Murphy USA's Walmart-proximity strategy and buyback-driven return.

Live analysis · updated 6/20/2026

ATD and MUSA are closely matched — they split the tracked metrics evenly.

Normalized 1Y performance

ATD

MUSA

Not enough data to chart yet.

Recent returns

ATD

MUSA

Analyst price targets & sentiment

ATD

Price target data unavailable

N/A

MUSA · 9 analysts

STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL

Buy (2.5/5.0)

Price target range

analyst low$380.00
analyst high$680.00
analyst mean$566.89
current price$551.26

+2.8% upside to analyst mean

Who should consider this stock?

ATD may suit investors who:

→Want global convenience store exposure through the Circle K brand with operations across North America, Europe, and growing Asia presence
→Value Couche-Tard's proven M&A integration playbook as a long-term compounder through disciplined international convenience retail acquisitions
→Are comfortable with Canadian stock exposure (ATD primarily trades on TSX, may be accessed as OTC in U.S. markets)

MUSA may suit investors who:

→Want a U.S.-only fuel retail and convenience store operator with a differentiated Walmart co-location strategy driving traffic advantages
→Value Murphy USA's aggressive buyback program and disciplined capital return as the primary shareholder value creation mechanism
→Prefer a simpler, focused U.S. fuel retail model versus the complexity of a global multi-country convenience store operator

Performance & AI score

Metric	ATD	MUSA
AI score	N/A	52.4
AI rank	N/A	#328
Latest close	N/A	$551.26
1M return	N/A	-3.22%
6M return	N/A	+34.95%
1Y return	N/A	+36.09%

$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)

How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?

Period	ATD	MUSA
1Y ago	N/A	$13.69K (+36.9%) started 2025-06-18
5Y ago	N/A	$44.91K (+349.1%) started 2021-06-18
10Y ago	N/A	$80.91K (+709.1%) started 2016-06-20

Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.

Valuation & upside potential

Metric	ATD	MUSA
Market cap	N/A	$10.18B
Trailing P/E	N/A	19.19
Forward P/E	N/A	18.80
Price/Sales	N/A	0.59
EV/Revenue	N/A	0.76
Analyst target	N/A	$566.89
Target upside	N/A	+2.84%

Growth, profitability & risk

Metric	ATD	MUSA
Revenue growth	N/A	7.10%
Earnings growth	N/A	176.80%
EPS growth	N/A	+176.80%
FCF margin	N/A	+2.26%
Operating margin	N/A	N/A
Profit margin	N/A	3.20%
ROIC proxy	N/A	80.34%
Return on equity	N/A	80.34%
Dividend yield	N/A	0.43%
Beta	N/A	0.30
Debt/equity	N/A	412.27
Current ratio	N/A	0.83
Quick ratio	N/A	0.45

Drawdown & downside risk

Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.

1Y risk snapshot

ATD max drawdownN/A

MUSA max drawdown19.72%

ATD max wkly dropN/A

MUSA max wkly drop16.44%

5Y risk snapshot

ATD max drawdownN/A

MUSA max drawdown35.54%

ATD max wkly dropN/A

MUSA max wkly drop16.44%

10Y risk snapshot

ATD max drawdownN/A

MUSA max drawdown35.54%

ATD max wkly dropN/A

MUSA max wkly drop17.08%

Performance metrics by period

Period	Metric	ATD	MUSA
1Y	Growth	N/A	+36.09%
	CAGR	N/A	+36.12%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	0.87
	Max drawdown	N/A	19.72%
	Max daily drop	N/A	11.16%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	16.44%
5Y	Growth	N/A	+337.73%
	CAGR	N/A	+34.36%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	0.98
	Max drawdown	N/A	35.54%
	Max daily drop	N/A	12.28%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	16.44%
10Y	Growth	N/A	+684.07%
	CAGR	N/A	+22.88%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	0.67
	Max drawdown	N/A	35.54%
	Max daily drop	N/A	12.82%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	17.08%

Business comparison

Category	ATD	MUSA
Company	Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.	Murphy USA Inc.
Sector	Consumer Staples - Convenience Stores & Fuel	Consumer Staples - Fuel Retail & Convenience
Industry	N/A	N/A
Core business	Alimentation Couche-Tard is a Canadian global convenience store operator with approximately 16,000 sites across North America (Circle K brand), Europe, and Asia — one of the largest convenience and fuel retailers in the world, with a history of successful international acquisitions.	Murphy USA operates approximately 1,700 Murphy USA and Murphy Express fuel and convenience retail locations across 27 states, with many sites located adjacent to Walmart stores — a strategic positioning that drives traffic from Walmart shoppers seeking fuel and convenience items.
Investor focus	Investors track Couche-Tard's same-store sales (fuel and merchandise), merchandise gross margin improvement, fuel volume and retail margin, and M&A pipeline as the company consistently acquires and integrates convenience chains globally under the Circle K banner.	Investors track Murphy USA's fuel volume, retail fuel margin per gallon, merchandise revenue and margins, new store openings, and capital return through buybacks — Murphy USA is known for an aggressive buyback-heavy capital return strategy.

ATD strengths

→World's second-largest convenience store operator with approximately 16,000 sites across North America and Europe, providing scale in fuel purchasing, private label, and operating best practices
→Proven acquisition integration playbook — Couche-Tard has consistently acquired convenience chains and improved their margins through operational best practices, private label, and procurement scale
→Circle K global brand builds customer recognition and loyalty across a dispersed retail network that spans multiple countries and fuel formats

MUSA strengths

→Walmart proximity strategy provides a structural traffic advantage — Walmart shoppers already on site seeking fuel create a captive customer base without need for destination-only traffic generation
→Disciplined capital allocation with buybacks as the primary shareholder return mechanism — Murphy USA has repurchased a significant fraction of its share count over time
→Low-cost operating model with smaller store formats and minimal food service complexity keeps overhead efficient relative to larger convenience formats

Risks to watch — ATD

→EV adoption will gradually reduce fuel volume at Couche-Tard's primarily gasoline-dependent fuel retail network, requiring investment in EV charging infrastructure
→ATD primarily trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker ATD — U.S. investors may face currency and OTC trading considerations versus NYSE-listed peers
→Fuel retail margins are volatile and difficult to predict — spread between wholesale and retail gasoline prices can compress rapidly with competitive or cost pressures

Risks to watch — MUSA

→EV adoption is an existential long-term risk to fuel-only convenience stores — Murphy USA's thin-format sites may be harder to convert to EV charging versus larger convenience formats
→Walmart relationship concentration means Murphy USA's traffic depends partly on continued Walmart store performance and co-location agreements
→Murphy USA's smaller store format limits food service and convenience merchandise revenue per customer compared to larger competitors like Wawa or Sheetz

Frequently asked questions

Convenience stores and fuel retailers earn from two primary streams: (1) fuel sales — typically low-margin per gallon (a few cents) but high volume, with the margin between wholesale cost and retail pump price subject to competition; and (2) merchandise — higher-margin in-store product sales (snacks, beverages, tobacco, lottery) and increasingly food service. The best operators drive customers from the fuel forecourt into the store for high-margin merchandise purchases.

AI Prediction SignalNext 5 trading days

Members only

ATD

+2.8%BUY

MUSA

+1.1%HOLD

Start Free Trial Log in

ML model trained on historical prices · 14-day free trial · No credit card required

Free public comparison

Want deeper AI forecasts?

This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.

Start Free Trial Read Investing Guides