Costco vs Walmart
Add, change or remove companies; up to four.
The short version
- Walmart is the larger business, with $713.2B of revenue in fiscal 2026 against $303.2B for Costco, about 2.4 times as much.
- Costco grew revenue faster (10.1%, against 4.7%).
- Costco turned more of its sales into free cash flow (3.1% FCF margin, against 2.1%).
- Costco earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (40.7%, against 16.1%).
| Latest fiscal year | COST · FY26 | WMT · FY26 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $445.9B | $956.5B |
| Revenue | $303.2B | $713.2B |
| Free cash flow | $9.4B | $14.9B |
| Net income | $9.2B | $21.9B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 10.1% | 4.7% |
| 5-year growth | 9.1% | 5.0% |
| Share count change | −0.1% | −0.7% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 12.8% | 24.9% |
| Operating margin | 3.9% | 4.2% |
| Net margin | 3.0% | 3.1% |
| FCF margin | 3.1% | 2.1% |
| Return on capital | 40.7% | 16.1% |
| Return on equity | 28.4% | 23.0% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | −$13.7B | $40.8B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −1.0x | 0.9x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $3.3B | $15.6B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | — | 43.3x |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 7 |
Revenue
FY17
COST $129.0B
WMT $485.9B
FY18
COST $141.6B
WMT $500.3B
FY19
COST $152.7B
WMT $514.4B
FY20
COST $166.8B
WMT $524.0B
FY21
COST $195.9B
WMT $559.2B
FY22
COST $227.0B
WMT $572.8B
FY23
COST $242.3B
WMT $611.3B
FY24
COST $254.5B
WMT $648.1B
FY25
COST $275.2B
WMT $681.0B
FY26
COST $303.2B
WMT $713.2B
COST
WMT
Operating margin
FY17
COST 3.2%
WMT 4.7%
FY18
COST 3.2%
WMT 4.1%
FY19
COST 3.1%
WMT 4.3%
FY20
COST 3.3%
WMT 3.9%
FY21
COST 3.4%
WMT 4.0%
FY22
COST 3.4%
WMT 4.5%
FY23
COST 3.4%
WMT 3.3%
FY24
COST 3.7%
WMT 4.2%
FY25
COST 3.8%
WMT 4.3%
FY26
COST 3.9%
WMT 4.2%
COST
WMT
Free cash flow
FY17
COST $4.2B
WMT $21.1B
FY18
COST $2.8B
WMT $18.3B
FY19
COST $3.4B
WMT $17.4B
FY20
COST $6.1B
WMT $14.6B
FY21
COST $5.4B
WMT $25.8B
FY22
COST $3.5B
WMT $11.1B
FY23
COST $6.7B
WMT $12.0B
FY24
COST $6.6B
WMT $15.1B
FY25
COST $7.8B
WMT $12.7B
FY26
COST $9.4B
WMT $14.9B
COST
WMT
Return on capital
FY17
COST 22.4%
WMT 13.7%
FY18
COST 26.3%
WMT 12.6%
FY19
COST 28.9%
WMT 11.7%
FY20
COST 30.8%
WMT 12.5%
FY21
COST 36.1%
WMT 12.3%
FY22
COST 38.2%
WMT 16.2%
FY23
COST 37.0%
WMT 11.3%
FY24
COST 38.9%
WMT 16.3%
FY25
COST 37.9%
WMT 17.2%
FY26
COST 40.7%
WMT 16.1%
COST
WMT
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.