Home Depot (HD) Competitors

Lowe's Companies (NYSE:LOW) and Home Depot (NYSE:HD) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment and profitability.

Do analysts recommend LOW or HD?

Lowe's Companies presently has a consensus price target of $279.71, indicating a potential upside of 20.04%. Home Depot has a consensus price target of $435.85, indicating a potential upside of 19.75%. Given Lowe's Companies' higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Lowe's Companies is more favorable than Home Depot.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lowe's Companies	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.52
Home Depot	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	22 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.77

Which has higher valuation and earnings, LOW or HD?

Home Depot has higher revenue and earnings than Lowe's Companies. Lowe's Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Home Depot, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lowe's Companies	$83.67B	1.57	$7.73B	$12.21	19.08
Home Depot	$159.51B	2.27	$15.14B	$14.92	24.39

Is LOW or HD more profitable?

Home Depot has a net margin of 9.45% compared to Lowe's Companies' net margin of 8.19%. Home Depot's return on equity of 452.60% beat Lowe's Companies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lowe's Companies	8.19%	-47.55%	15.28%
Home Depot	9.45%	452.60%	16.91%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor LOW or HD?

Home Depot received 314 more outperform votes than Lowe's Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.47% of users gave Home Depot an outperform vote while only 69.52% of users gave Lowe's Companies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lowe's Companies	Outperform Votes 1510 69.52%	Underperform Votes 662 30.48%
Home Depot	Outperform Votes 1824 71.47%	Underperform Votes 728 28.53%

Which has more volatility & risk, LOW or HD?

Lowe's Companies has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Home Depot has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in LOW or HD?

74.1% of Lowe's Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Home Depot shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Lowe's Companies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Home Depot shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to LOW or HD?

In the previous week, Home Depot had 36 more articles in the media than Lowe's Companies. MarketBeat recorded 91 mentions for Home Depot and 55 mentions for Lowe's Companies. Lowe's Companies' average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Home Depot's score of 1.26 indicating that Lowe's Companies is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lowe's Companies	41 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Home Depot	65 Very Positive mention(s)	7 Positive mention(s)	15 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is LOW or HD a better dividend stock?

Lowe's Companies pays an annual dividend of $4.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Home Depot pays an annual dividend of $9.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Lowe's Companies pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Home Depot pays out 61.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lowe's Companies has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years and Home Depot has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Summary

Home Depot beats Lowe's Companies on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.