Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-cyclical

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
67/100
Moderate

About Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Lowe's Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States. 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, … Full LOW analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Stable Across Cycles Operating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.91), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
  • Cost Leadership Position Operating margin at 85.4th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.

Key risks

  • Elevated Debt Risk Debt serviceability is weak (score 0.36), raising refinancing risk.
  • Liquidity Concerns Liquidity is concerning (score 0.19), raising questions about short-term obligations.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Moderate
72

Where LOW ranks in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary)

Lowe's Companies, Inc. ranks #33 of 168 scored companies in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary) by moat score — the top 20%. The widest moat in the group is Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK) at 84/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near LOW in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary)
# Company Moat score Rating
29 Liquidity Services, Inc. LQDT 69/100 Moderate
30 Global-E Online Ltd. GLBE 69/100 Moderate
31 Dillard's, Inc. DDS 69/100 Moderate
32 Sea Limited SE 68/100 Moderate
33 Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW 67/100 Moderate
34 Home Depot, Inc. (The) HD 67/100 Moderate
35 Bath & Body Works, Inc. BBWI 67/100 Moderate
36 Revolve Group, Inc. RVLV 66/100 Moderate
37 On Holding AG ONON 66/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How LOW scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 72 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 86 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 84 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 63 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 40 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 62 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding LOW's moat

What is Lowe's Companies, Inc.'s moat score?

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW) scores 67 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #33 of 168 scored companies in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary), the top 20%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 167 companies in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary). Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (86/100) and its weakest is Resilience (40/100).

How does Lowe's Companies, Inc. compare with other Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary) companies?

Lowe's Companies, Inc. ranks #33 of 168 scored companies in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary) by moat score. The widest moat in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary) is Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK) at 84/100. The companies ranked closest are Sea Limited (SE) at 68 just above it and Home Depot, Inc. (The) (HD) at 67 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 167 companies in Consumer Cyclical: Retail (Discretionary). The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Lowe's Companies, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Lowe's Companies, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and LOW scores: Pricing Power (72), Cost Advantage (86), Customer Stickiness (84), Capital Efficiency (63), Resilience (40), Scale & Market Position (62). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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