FAST vs LOW
Fastenal Co. and Lowe’s Companies, Inc., side by side — 10 fiscal years reported in USD, drawn from SEC filings.
At a glance
Most recent reported year
| Metric | FAST | LOW |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $8.2B | $86.3B |
| Net income | $1.3B | $6.7B |
| Gross margin | 45.0% | 33.5% |
| Net margin | 15.3% | 7.7% |
| Return on equity | 33.3% | 342.3% |
| Diluted EPS | $1.09 | $11.85 |
| Dividend / share | $0.88 | $4.75 |
| Payout ratio | 79.8% | 39.6% |
| Free cash flow | $1.1B | $7.7B |
| Equity | $3.9B | $-9.9B |
| Net debt / equity | −0.04× | 11.12× |
| Current ratio | 4.85× | 1.08× |
| Revenue CAGR 5y | 7.7% | −0.8% |
| Profit CAGR 5y | 7.9% | 2.7% |
LOW bills 10.5× the revenue of FAST, and FAST keeps more of each dollar of revenue as profit (15.3% against 7.7%).
The stronger figure of the pair is set in bold. That is arithmetic, not a recommendation — this page does not pick a winner.
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Revenue by year
10 years side by side
| Fiscal year | FAST | LOW |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $8.2B | $86.3B |
| FY2024 | $7.5B | $83.7B |
| FY2023 | $7.3B | $86.4B |
| FY2022 | $7.0B | $97.1B |
| FY2021 | $6.0B | $96.2B |
| FY2020 | $5.6B | $89.6B |
| FY2019 | $5.3B | $72.1B |
| FY2018 | $5.0B | $71.3B |
| FY2017 | $4.4B | $68.6B |
| FY2016 | $4.0B | $65.0B |
Net income by year
Bottom line
| Fiscal year | FAST | LOW |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $1.3B | $6.7B |
| FY2024 | $1.2B | $7.0B |
| FY2023 | $1.2B | $7.7B |
| FY2022 | $1.1B | $6.4B |
| FY2021 | $925.0M | $8.4B |
| FY2020 | $859.1M | $5.8B |
| FY2019 | $790.9M | $4.3B |
| FY2018 | $751.9M | $2.3B |
| FY2017 | $578.6M | $3.4B |
| FY2016 | $499.4M | $3.1B |
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