Home Depot vs Lowe's
Add, change or remove companies; up to four.
The short version
- Home Depot is the larger business, with $164.7B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $86.3B for Lowe's, about 1.9 times as much.
- Home Depot kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (12.7% operating margin, against 11.8%).
- Lowe's turned more of its sales into free cash flow (8.9% FCF margin, against 7.7%).
- Lowe's earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (31.9%, against 24.9%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Home Depot’s earnings: a P/E of 22.4x against 16.8x for Lowe's.
| Latest fiscal year | HD · FY25 | LOW · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $318.6B | $111.3B |
| Revenue | $164.7B | $86.3B |
| Free cash flow | $12.6B | $7.7B |
| Net income | $14.2B | $6.7B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 3.2% | 3.1% |
| 5-year growth | 4.5% | −0.8% |
| Share count change | 0.2% | −1.4% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 33.3% | 33.5% |
| Operating margin | 12.7% | 11.8% |
| Net margin | 8.6% | 7.7% |
| FCF margin | 7.7% | 8.9% |
| Return on capital | 24.9% | 31.9% |
| Return on equity | 145.5% | — |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $55.4B | $38.9B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.3x | 3.2x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $9.2B | $2.8B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 22.4x | 16.8x |
| Piotroski F-score | 4 | 6 |
Revenue
FY16
HD $94.6B
LOW $65.0B
FY17
HD $100.9B
LOW $68.6B
FY18
HD $108.2B
LOW $71.3B
FY19
HD $110.2B
LOW $72.1B
FY20
HD $132.1B
LOW $89.6B
FY21
HD $151.2B
LOW $96.3B
FY22
HD $157.4B
LOW $97.1B
FY23
HD $152.7B
LOW $86.4B
FY24
HD $159.5B
LOW $83.7B
FY25
HD $164.7B
LOW $86.3B
HD
LOW
Operating margin
FY16
HD 14.2%
LOW 9.0%
FY17
HD 14.6%
LOW 9.6%
FY18
HD 14.4%
LOW 5.6%
FY19
HD 14.4%
LOW 8.8%
FY20
HD 13.8%
LOW 10.8%
FY21
HD 15.2%
LOW 12.6%
FY22
HD 15.3%
LOW 10.5%
FY23
HD 14.2%
LOW 13.4%
FY24
HD 13.5%
LOW 12.5%
FY25
HD 12.7%
LOW 11.8%
HD
LOW
Free cash flow
FY16
HD $8.2B
LOW $4.5B
FY17
HD $10.1B
LOW $3.9B
FY18
HD $10.7B
LOW $5.0B
FY19
HD $11.0B
LOW $2.8B
FY20
HD $16.4B
LOW $9.3B
FY21
HD $14.0B
LOW $8.3B
FY22
HD $11.5B
LOW $6.8B
FY23
HD $17.9B
LOW $6.2B
FY24
HD $16.3B
LOW $7.7B
FY25
HD $12.6B
LOW $7.7B
HD
LOW
Return on capital
FY16
HD 33.7%
LOW 16.9%
FY17
HD 36.8%
LOW 19.0%
FY18
HD 47.1%
LOW 13.3%
FY19
HD 46.6%
LOW 24.3%
FY20
HD 46.7%
LOW 37.9%
FY21
HD 50.1%
LOW 49.6%
FY22
HD 45.8%
LOW 39.0%
FY23
HD 38.4%
LOW 45.8%
FY24
HD 32.1%
LOW 40.4%
FY25
HD 24.9%
LOW 31.9%
HD
LOW
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.