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 superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, community ranking, dividends and valuation.

Which has more volatility & risk, LOW or HD?

Lowe's Companies has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Home Depot has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership 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 company will outperform the market over the long term.

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 1.8%. Home Depot pays an annual dividend of $9.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Lowe's Companies pays out 38.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Home Depot pays out 61.1% 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 raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years and Home Depot has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Do analysts prefer LOW or HD?

Lowe's Companies currently has a consensus price target of $280.85, suggesting a potential upside of 7.44%. Home Depot has a consensus price target of $426.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.05%. Given Lowe's Companies' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly 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	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	16 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.62
Home Depot	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	23 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73

Does the media refer more to LOW or HD?

In the previous week, Home Depot had 38 more articles in the media than Lowe's Companies. MarketBeat recorded 83 mentions for Home Depot and 45 mentions for Lowe's Companies. Lowe's Companies' average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Home Depot's score of 1.45 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)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Home Depot	70 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LOW or HD?

Home Depot received 310 more outperform votes than Lowe's Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.42% of users gave Home Depot an outperform vote while only 69.50% of users gave Lowe's Companies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lowe's Companies	Outperform Votes 1502 69.50%	Underperform Votes 659 30.50%
Home Depot	Outperform Votes 1812 71.42%	Underperform Votes 725 28.58%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, 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	$86.38B	1.71	$7.73B	$11.99	21.80
Home Depot	$154.60B	2.63	$15.14B	$14.72	27.81

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%

Summary

Home Depot beats Lowe's Companies on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.