Sifting through countless of stocks in the Specialty Retail industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc.

Lowe's Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and Canada. It provides a line of products for construction, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and decorating. The company also offers home improvement products, such as appliances, seasonal and outdoor living, lumber, lawn and garden, kitchens and bath, hardware, building materials, millwork, paint, rough plumbing, tools, electrical, flooring, and décor. In addition, it provides installation services through independent contractors in various product categories; and extended protection plans and repair services. Further, the company provides design, distribution, and installation services for interior surface finishes to home builders and property managers. It sells its national brand-name merchandise and private brand products to professional customers, individual homeowners, and renters. The company serves its products through Lowes.com website, mobile applications, retail home improvement stores and outlet stores, and its branches. Lowe's Companies, Inc. was founded in 1921 and is based in Mooresville, North Carolina.

The Home Depot, Inc. operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and internationally. It sells various building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and décor products, as well as facilities maintenance, repair, and operations products. The company also offers installation services for flooring, water heaters, baths, garage doors, cabinets, cabinet makeovers, countertops, sheds, furnaces and central air systems, windows, and window coverings. In addition, it provides tool and equipment rental services. The company serves consumers, such as do-it-yourself homeowners and do-it-for-me customers; and professional renovators/remodelers, general contractors, homebuilders, maintenance professionals, handymen, property managers, building service contractors and specialty tradespeople, such as electricians, landscapers, insulation installers, plumbers, painters, pool contractors, roofers, and wallboard and ceiling installers. It sells its products through websites and its mobile applications, including homedepot.com; homedepot.ca and homedepot.com.mx; blinds.com, justblinds.com, and americanblinds.com for custom window coverings; constructionresourcesusa.com or design-oriented surfaces, appliances, and architectural specialty products; thecompanystore.com, an online site for textiles and décor products; hdsupply.com for maintenance, repair, and operations products and related services; and srsdistribution.com, heritagelandscapesupplygroup.com, heritagepoolsupplygroup.com, and gms.com for roofing and building materials, landscape, and pool products; and The Home Depot stores. The Home Depot, Inc. was incorporated in 1978 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Latest Specialty Retail and Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot, Inc. Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, Lowe's Companies, Inc. had a $112.1 billion market capitalization, compared to the Specialty Retail median of $965.1 million. Lowe's Companies, Inc.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and down 22.76% in the past year.

Currently, Lowe's Companies, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 16.9. Lowe's Companies, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $90.4 billion with a 7.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 8.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $12.327 per share for the current fiscal year. Lowe's Companies, Inc. currently has a 2.5% dividend yield.

Currently, The Home Depot, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 22.3. The Home Depot, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $169.2 billion with a 8.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 5.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $15.022 per share for the current fiscal year. The Home Depot, Inc. currently has a 2.9% dividend yield.

How We Compare Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Lowe's Companies, Inc.	LOW	D
The Home Depot, Inc.	HD	B

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Lowe's Companies, Inc. has a Growth Score of 35, which is Weak. The Home Depot, Inc. has a Growth Score of 73, which is Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: The Home Depot, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, The Home Depot, Inc. has a more attractive growth grade than Lowe's Companies, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, The Home Depot, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Lowe's Companies, Inc.	LOW	B
The Home Depot, Inc.	HD	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Lowe's Companies, Inc. has a Quality Score of 76, which is Strong. The Home Depot, Inc. has a Quality Score of 84, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: The Home Depot, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, The Home Depot, Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Lowe's Companies, Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, The Home Depot, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Lowe's Companies, Inc.	LOW	C
The Home Depot, Inc.	HD	C

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Lowe's Companies, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 48, which is Neutral. The Home Depot, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 55, which is Neutral.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot or Inc. has an Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade that could be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to estimate revisions.

Other Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc. Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Growth and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Momentum.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Lowe's Companies, Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 35, Estimate Revisions Score of 48 and Quality Score of 76.

The Home Depot, Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 73, Estimate Revisions Score of 55 and Quality Score of 84.

Comparing Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Home Depot and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.