Home Depot vs Lowes Companies
HD and LOW side by side, both in consumer discretionary. Figures are trailing twelve months unless noted, from SEC filings and end-of-day prices.
How HD and LOW compare
Home Depot is the larger company, worth 2.7 times as much as Lowes Companies ($350B against $130B).
On earnings, Lowes Companies is cheaper: it trades at 19.6× trailing earnings, against 24.6× for Home Depot.
Lowes Companies grew revenue faster over the last twelve months (8.2% versus 2.5% for Home Depot).
Home Depot keeps more of each dollar of sales as profit, with a net margin of 8.4% compared with 7.3% at Lowes Companies.
Both pay dividends: Home Depot yields 2.6% and Lowes Companies 1.6%.
Home Depot scores higher on the StockData Score (15 against 11 for Lowes Companies), which adds up 30 checks on valuation, growth, past performance, financial health and dividends.
Key numbers
A dot marks the better figure where higher or lower is clearly better.
| Metric | HD | LOW |
|---|---|---|
| Size and price | ||
| Market cap | $350B | $130B |
| Share price | $351.31 | $231.60 |
| Change, 1 year | −5.2% | −0.61% |
| Change, 5 years | −14.0% | −7.2% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.88 | 0.90 |
| Employees | 472K | 167K |
| StockData Score | ||
| Total score | 15 (better) | 11 |
| Valuation score | 0 | 0 |
| Growth score | 1 | 1 |
| Performance score | 5 (better) | 3 |
| Health score | 5 (better) | 3 |
| Dividend score | 4 | 4 |
| Valuation | ||
| P/E | 24.6× | 19.6× (better) |
| P/S | 2.1× | 1.4× (better) |
| P/B | 21.1× | – |
| EV/EBITDA | 16.4× | 13.0× (better) |
| P/FCF | 23.2× | 18.6× (better) |
| PEG | – | 3.74 |
| FCF yield | 4.3% | 5.4% (better) |
| Fair value | $266.71 | $201.08 |
| Margin of safety | −31.7% | −15.2% (better) |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth (TTM) | 2.5% | 8.2% (better) |
| Revenue growth, 5Y average | 4.5% (better) | −0.75% |
| Net income growth (TTM) | −2.7% (better) | −3.1% |
| EPS growth (TTM) | −2.9% | −2.8% (better) |
| EPS growth, 5Y average | 3.6% | 8.9% (better) |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 33.2% (better) | 33.1% |
| Operating margin | 12.4% (better) | 11.4% |
| Net margin | 8.4% (better) | 7.3% |
| FCF margin | 8.9% (better) | 7.7% |
| Return on equity | 104% | – |
| Return on invested capital | 25.0% | 34.8% (better) |
| Financial health | ||
| Debt / equity | 3.18 | – |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.07 (better) | 2.71 |
| Interest coverage | 8.7× | – |
| Current ratio | 1.08 | 1.10 (better) |
| Altman Z-score | 5.73 (better) | 3.30 |
| Piotroski F-score | 4 | 6 (better) |
| Dividends and buybacks | ||
| Dividend yield | 2.6% (better) | 1.6% |
| Payout ratio | 64.8% | 40.5% |
| Years of dividend growth | 16 | 17 (better) |
| Dividend growth, 5Y average | 8.9% | 15.6% (better) |
| Buyback yield | −0.10% | 0.36% (better) |
| Shareholder yield | 2.5% (better) | 1.9% |
| Ownership | ||
| Held by institutions | 75.2% | 79.0% |
| Held by insiders | 0.07% | 0.11% |
| Insider net buying, 12 months | −$6.7M (better) | −$13.2M |
| Superinvestors holding | 4 (better) | 1 |
| Short interest, % of float | 1.2% | 2.0% |
Go deeper
- HD stock overview
- HD income statement
- HD valuation and score
- LOW stock overview
- LOW income statement
- LOW valuation and score
Other comparisons
For information only, not investment advice. Check the source filings before relying on any figure.