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W.W. Grainger (GWW) Competitors

W.W. Grainger logo
$1,051.69 +6.93 (+0.66%)
Closing price 07/24/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
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$1,051.57 -0.12 (-0.01%)
As of 08:02 AM Eastern
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GWW vs. FAST, AME, GGG, HUBB, ITW, MSM, WSO, URI, WCC, and AIT

Should you be buying W.W. Grainger stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of W.W. Grainger include Fastenal (FAST), AMETEK (AME), Graco (GGG), Hubbell (HUBB), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), Watsco (WSO), United Rentals (URI), WESCO International (WCC), and Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT).

W.W. Grainger vs. Its Competitors

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) are both large-cap trading companies & distributors companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.

W.W. Grainger currently has a consensus target price of $1,116.25, suggesting a potential upside of 6.14%. Fastenal has a consensus target price of $45.64, suggesting a potential downside of 4.79%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Fastenal.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
W.W. Grainger
2 Sell rating(s)
7 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.17
Fastenal
1 Sell rating(s)
8 Hold rating(s)
3 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.17

W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $9.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. W.W. Grainger pays out 23.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fastenal pays out 84.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 55 consecutive years and Fastenal has raised its dividend for 26 consecutive years.

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fastenal has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger and W.W. Grainger both had 14 articles in the media. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.50 beat Fastenal's score of 0.98 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger
12 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Fastenal
10 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

W.W. Grainger has higher revenue and earnings than Fastenal. W.W. Grainger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fastenal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
W.W. Grainger$17.24B2.93$1.91B$38.9527.00
Fastenal$7.77B7.08$1.15B$1.0446.09

Fastenal has a net margin of 15.30% compared to W.W. Grainger's net margin of 11.08%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 51.28% beat Fastenal's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
W.W. Grainger11.08% 51.28% 22.00%
Fastenal 15.30%32.33%24.62%

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.4% of Fastenal shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Fastenal shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Fastenal on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GWW and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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GWW vs. The Competition

MetricW.W. GraingerIndustrial Services IndustryIndustrials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$50.19B$17.47B$7.72B$21.14B
Dividend Yield0.87%2.29%4.55%3.58%
P/E Ratio27.0021.1125.5727.76
Price / Sales2.935.82101.3358.38
Price / Cash23.5813.2527.9723.00
Price / Book13.834.314.484.67
Net Income$1.91B$608.64M$795.63M$993.85M
7 Day Performance2.42%4.59%1.15%1.48%
1 Month Performance2.67%11.29%6.50%5.79%
1 Year Performance10.22%11.93%32.13%11.41%

W.W. Grainger Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
GWW
W.W. Grainger
3.3816 of 5 stars
$1,051.69
+0.7%
$1,116.25
+6.1%
+12.8%$50.19B$17.24B27.0026,000Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
FAST
Fastenal
4.3385 of 5 stars
$46.02
-0.1%
$45.64
-0.8%
+42.4%$52.81B$7.55B44.2523,702
AME
AMETEK
4.2598 of 5 stars
$178.05
-0.3%
$197.30
+10.8%
+7.6%$41.11B$6.94B29.1421,500Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
GGG
Graco
4.011 of 5 stars
$86.25
-0.3%
$93.00
+7.8%
+4.7%$14.42B$2.15B30.484,300Trending News
Earnings Report
Gap Down
HUBB
Hubbell
2.3824 of 5 stars
$422.03
-1.9%
$456.25
+8.1%
+22.6%$22.52B$5.63B28.5517,700Upcoming Earnings
ITW
Illinois Tool Works
4.5242 of 5 stars
$254.59
-0.2%
$255.67
+0.4%
+9.5%$74.60B$15.90B22.3944,000Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
MSM
MSC Industrial Direct
4.0089 of 5 stars
$85.97
-1.7%
$90.33
+5.1%
+6.3%$4.79B$3.82B24.287,423Positive News
WSO
Watsco
3.1212 of 5 stars
$469.05
-0.4%
$484.17
+3.2%
+1.0%$19.00B$7.62B36.057,295Upcoming Earnings
URI
United Rentals
4.3353 of 5 stars
$778.38
-3.7%
$772.77
-0.7%
+22.1%$50.59B$15.35B20.1527,900Trending News
Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Gap Up
WCC
WESCO International
4.1991 of 5 stars
$203.52
-1.1%
$210.75
+3.6%
+28.7%$9.93B$21.82B15.3920,000Upcoming Earnings
AIT
Applied Industrial Technologies
4.1143 of 5 stars
$259.98
-0.3%
$285.00
+9.6%
+31.0%$9.90B$4.48B26.106,500Positive News

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This page (NYSE:GWW) was last updated on 7/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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