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Distributes maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) supplies like fasteners, safety gear and tools to businesses and institutions.
Distributes maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) supplies like fasteners, safety gear and tools to businesses and institutions.
Sells maintenance and repair supplies from its own warehouses, with large customers served through account teams, inventory-management services and on-site vending. Customers pay for convenience because a stopped machine costs more than the part. Zoro and Japan's MonotaRO, a listed company in which Grainger holds a majority stake, sell a far wider range online to small buyers.
Moat: narrow (scale, distribution, installed base). Huge SKU breadth and distribution-center density create switching costs for large procurement accounts.
Headquarters: Lake Forest, Illinois, USA · Founded: 1927 · Employees: 25,000
Size W. W. Grainger (GWW) is a United States Industrials company (Wholesale Distributors) with a market value of $67.9B, the 197th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $1,441 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 17.0%, against -1.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 11 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 9.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +10.8%); the operating margin is 16.8% (peer median 6.7%).
Valuation It trades at 28.2× forward earnings against a peer median of 12.6× (2nd most expensive of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 12% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +9%, so the hurdle is +3 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 27.0 points above its cost of capital (9.4% WACC).
Credit W. W. Grainger has 4 bonds outstanding ($2.30B), rated A+ by the agencies and trading like AA at a weighted spread of 69 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.6% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 2 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $19.4B | $17.9B | $17.2B | $16.5B | $15.2B |
| Revenue growth | — | +5% | +4% | +8% | — |
| Gross profit | $7.64B | $6.93B | $6.69B | $6.43B | $5.79B |
| EBITDA | $3.51B | $2.94B | $2.87B | $2.81B | $2.42B |
| Net income | $2.16B | $1.71B | $1.91B | $1.83B | $1.55B |
| Free cash flow | $1.72B | $1.33B | $1.57B | $1.59B | $1.08B |
| Capital expenditure | $522M | $684M | $541M | $445M | $256M |
| Total debt | $3.07B | $2.86B | $3.18B | $2.75B | $2.71B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W. W. Grainger GWW | $67.9B | +17% | +9% | 17% | 28.2× | 11.9% |
| Fastenal FAST | $60.8B | +20% | +14% | 21% | 38.3× | 14.2% |
| MSC Industrial Direct MSM | $6.33B | +9% | +6% | 9% | 20.1× | 9.0% |
| Applied Industrial Technologies AIT | $10.3B | -8% | +8% | 11% | 23.0× | 8.6% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | GWW | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +13.6% | -9.8% | highest of 11 |
| 6-month return | +17.0% | -1.9% | 2nd highest of 11 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -5.3% | -21.2% | 2nd highest of 11 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +9.1% | +10.8% | 6th highest of 11 |
| Operating margin | 16.8% | 6.7% | 4th highest of 11 |
| Forward P/E | 28.2× | 12.6× | 2nd most expensive of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 11.9% | 9.9% | 5th most demanding of 10 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +8.7% | +9.1% | 5th lowest of 10 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.1 pp | +0.9 pp | 5th most demanding of 10 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +27.0 pp | +1.6 pp | 2nd highest of 11 |
| EV / EBITDA | 20.0× | 16.6× | 3rd most expensive of 7 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.7× | 1.9× | 4th least indebted of 9 |
| Bond spread | 69 bp | 84 bp | tightest of 5 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W. W. Grainger GWW | United States | $67.9B | +17% | +9% | 17% | 28.2× | 11.9% | +8.7% |
| Fastenal FAST | United States | $60.8B | +20% | +14% | 21% | 38.3× | 14.2% | +7.7% |
| Glencore GLEN.L | United Kingdom | $78.0B | -14% | +27% | 2% | 10.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Sumitomo 8053.T | Japan | $47.7B | +9% | +6% | 5% | 11.3× | 15.2% | +9.5% |
| Ferguson Enterprises FERG | United States | $45.2B | -3% | +8% | 10% | 19.4× | 9.9% | +9.1% |
| Mitsubishi 8058.T | Japan | $105B | -1% | +16% | 3% | 14.8× | 18.8% | +8.0% |
| CMOC 603993.SS | China | $41.0B | -29% | +32% | 20% | 8.7× | -5.4% | +12.8% |
| Toyota Tsusho 8015.T | Japan | $36.8B | +2% | +25% | 5% | 13.0× | 9.8% | +12.9% |
| Kyocera 6971.T | Japan | $23.4B | +3% | +7% | 6% | 22.5× | 21.3% | +6.3% |
| Aluminum Corporation of China 601600.SS | China | $20.7B | -26% | +5% | 18% | 6.7× | -16.2% | +5.3% |
| Rongsheng Petrochemical 002493.SZ | China | $17.9B | -14% | -11% | 8% | 12.2× | -4.4% | +22.1% |
W. W. Grainger has 4 bonds outstanding with $2.30B face value. The agencies rate it A+; its bonds trade like AA. Weighted yield 5.84%, a spread of 69 bp over government bonds.