Amazon vs Walmart, side by side
They are converging from opposite ends of retail. Amazon began online and layered on Amazon Web Services - a cloud-computing arm that now produces most of its operating profit, even though retail is most of its sales. Walmart is the world's biggest bricks-and-mortar retailer, using its thousands of stores as delivery hubs to fight back online. Two enormous, thin-margin retail machines with very different second engines.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on growth and momentum, and weakest on income.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on income and growth, and weakest on value.
The numbers, side by side
| Measure |  Amazon |  Walmart |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $271.58 | $111.20 |
| Market cap: The company's total value on the stock market - share price times the number of shares. Big = 'large-cap', small = 'small-cap'. | $2.92T | $884.94B |
| P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 21.8 | 39.0 |
| Div yield: Dividend yield: the yearly dividend as a percentage of the share price - roughly the income you'd earn just from dividends. | 0.0% | 0.9% |
| Revenue growth | 19.6% | 7.3% |
| 1Y: How much the share price has moved over the past year. | +18% | +15% |
More measures
| Forward P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 26.7 | 33.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 17.4% | 3.1% |
| ROE | 30.6% | 24.1% |
| Beta: How bumpy the share price is versus the whole market. Above 1 swings more than the market; below 1 is calmer. It's about the ride, not whether it goes up or down. | — | 0.60 |
The bolder figure is simply the larger of the two - higher is not automatically good (a higher P/E means more expectation in the price; a higher beta means bigger swings).
How they differ
Amazon is roughly 3x the size of Walmart by market value. On our factor screen Amazon currently screens higher on momentum and growth, while Walmart screens higher on income. Walmart trades on the higher P/E (39.0 vs 21.8), so more expectation is already built into its price; and Walmart pays a dividend (0.9%) while Amazon pays little or none.
Descriptive only - how the two compare on today's data, never a verdict on either.
Amazon, in one line
Amazon is a global giant that started as an online bookstore and now dominates everything from internet shopping to the cloud computing that powers the web.
Read the full Amazon explainer →Walmart, in one line
Walmart is the world's largest retailer, helping millions of shoppers save money on groceries and everyday essentials through its massive network of stores.
Read the full Walmart explainer →What to weigh
If dividend income matters to you, the yields differ (0.0% Amazon vs 0.9% Walmart). These are facts to understand, not a verdict - read each full explainer before deciding anything.
Common questions
Why do people focus on Amazon's cloud, AWS?
Because it is where the profit is. AWS is a minority of Amazon's revenue but the majority of its operating income, so its growth rate moves the share price far more than parcel volumes do.
What is Walmart's edge against Amazon?
Scale and proximity - most people live near a Walmart, which it uses for grocery (hard to ship) and fast local delivery. Its challenge is doing that profitably online, where margins are even thinner than in stores.