COST vs WMT

Costco and Walmart, both Consumer Defensive

Walmart is the larger company at $933B against $422B. On trailing earnings WMT is the cheaper of the two at a P/E of 37.2 against 49.8, a gap that is only a bargain if the two are growing at similar rates. Over the past year WMT returned +6.7% against -6.0% for COST. Ryufin's sector-relative Smart Score puts COST ahead, 5/10 against 4/10.

Costco and Walmartcompared on valuation, return and Ryufin’s Smart Score
FigureCOSTWMT
Last close$910$106
Market cap$422B$933B
Trailing P/Elower is cheaper for the same earnings, not automatically better49.837.2
Dividend yield0.5%0.9%
1-year return-6.0%+6.7%
5-year return+116%+128%
Ryufin Smart Scoresector-relative, 1–105/104/10

Figures from SEC filings and end-of-day closes. Highlighting marks the higher or lower number, which is not the same as the better investment, a low P/E can be a warning and a high one can be deserved.

Costco

Revenue of $71B in Q3 2026, net income $2.2B. Its largest reported line is Foods And Sundries, 38% of the disclosed total.

Walmart

Revenue of $178B in Q1 2027, net income $5.3B. Its largest reported line is Grocery, 57% of the disclosed total.

Open these two in the interactive comparison to add more names, change the period or see the correlation.