Costco (COST) vs Walmart (WMT)
WMT leads COST on the current QuantLink comparison, based on the rows where both companies have available metrics and a fixed comparison direction.
Side-by-side scorecard
As of Jul 9, 2026. Unavailable values are shown as — and excluded from the comparable-metric tally.
| Metric | Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) | Walmart Inc. (WMT) |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
PriceContext only | — | — |
Market capContext only | $404.9B | $893.0B |
| Valuation | ||
P/E ratio | 45.86x | ✓38.80x |
PEG ratio | 3.61x | ✓1.66x |
Price/book | 12.10x | ✓9.48x |
Price/sales | 1.38x | ✓1.23x |
EV/EBITDA | 27.17x | ✓20.01x |
| Profitability | ||
Gross margin | 12.9% | ✓25.0% |
Operating margin | 3.8% | ✓4.2% |
Net margin | 3.0% | ✓3.2% |
ROIC | ✓22.3% | 15.7% |
ROE | ✓26.4% | 24.4% |
EPS | — | — |
| Leverage | ||
Debt/equity | ✓0.25x | 0.79x |
| Dividend | ||
Dividend yield | — | — |
How the comparison is scored
QuantLink marks a row leader only when both companies have a numeric value and the metric has a fixed comparison direction. Lower values lead on valuation multiples and debt/equity, while higher values lead on profitability and dividend yield.
Price and market capitalization are shown for context only, so they do not receive a leader checkmark and do not affect the tally.