Metcash (MTS) Stock Price, Fundamentals & Analysis

What MTS does

Metcash (MTS) is a wholesale and distribution company listed on the ASX, headquartered in Macquarie Park, Australia, with around 14,000 employees. Founded in 1927, the company supplies independent retailers rather than running large supermarket chains itself. It operates through three segments: Food, Liquor, and Hardware. The Food segment distributes groceries to independent supermarkets, convenience stores, and food service customers; the Liquor segment supplies independent retail outlets and hotels; and the Hardware segment distributes to independent hardware retailers while also operating company-owned stores. Its products reach shoppers under well-known banners such as IGA, Foodland, Mitre 10, Home Hardware, Total Tools, Cellarbrations, IGA Liquor, and The Bottle-O. In this way it sits behind the scenes of Australian grocery and hardware retail, alongside listed peers such as Woolworths Group (WOW) and Coles Group (COL), and near consumer staples names like Bega Cheese (BGA).

Key numbers explained

• Price: 2.86 AUD, up +1.06% today, with a 52-week range of 2.63 – 3.98 — the stock currently trades closer to its yearly low than its high.
• Market capitalisation: 3.15B AUD — the total market value of all shares, placing Metcash among mid-sized ASX companies.
• P/E ratio of 11.4 trailing and 11.2 forward — the share price equals about eleven times annual earnings, a level often read as modest relative to the wider market.
• Earnings per share: 0.25 AUD over the trailing 12 months, the profit attributable to each share.
• Dividend yield of 6.64%, with 71% of earnings paid out as dividends — a high income payout, though it leaves a smaller retained-earnings cushion.
• Revenue: 17.35B AUD with growth of just 0.3% year over year — a very large turnover base growing only slowly.
• Margins are thin, as is typical for wholesale: 1.6% profit margin and 2.8% operating margin, but return on equity is a comparatively strong 16.7%.
• Beta of 0.42 suggests the share has historically moved less than the overall market, consistent with a defensive consumer sector profile.

What to watch

As a distributor to independent retailers, Metcash's results depend heavily on the health of independent grocery, liquor, and hardware store networks and on competition from large chains. With revenue growth of only 0.3%, volume trends and supplier terms matter more than headline growth. Thin margins (1.6% profit margin) mean small cost or pricing shifts can move profits noticeably, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 110.4% makes balance-sheet management worth following. The 6.64% dividend yield with a 71% payout means income investors typically watch earnings stability, since dividends are funded from a narrow margin base. Broader consumer spending, food price inflation, and sector dynamics — visible in peers like Endeavour Group (EDV) and a2 Milk Company (A2M) — also shape how this kind of stock performs.