The Walmart logo is seen near a store in Austin, USA, on October 23, 2025.
Jakub Porzycki | Null Photo | Getty Images
When receiving a call walmart Chief Executive Officer John Furner will assume the retailer’s top role as he seeks to follow a period of dramatic market share growth that many of Walmart’s rivals have failed to match.
Walmart’s stock price has more than quadrupled since outgoing CEO Doug McMillon took over in February 2014. In nine of Walmart’s 12 calendar years as a leader, the company posted a positive price-to-earnings ratio.
Only one of Wal-Mart’s major competitors in the retail and grocery business is Amazon and costco The stock’s price-to-earnings ratio has improved since Mr. McMillon took the job. Meanwhile, Walmart’s stock has outperformed its competitors, including: target, dollar general, dollar tree, kroger and albertsons.
Mr. McMillon will officially step down at the end of January, but will remain as chairman and advisor. Furner will face the challenge of replicating the performance of his predecessor, but as CEO of Walmart’s U.S. operations, its largest division, he has been a key catalyst for the company’s success.
Mr. McMillon oversaw a significant period of growth for the nation’s largest grocer, including sharp increases in sales, wage increases for hourly workers and the transformation of the nation’s low-priced leader into a major e-commerce company, along with huge Wall Street profits. He also led the retailer through turmoil including a global pandemic, historic levels of inflation and rising tariffs.
Sales were roughly flat during McMillon’s first three years in office, with sales of $486 billion, $482 billion and $485 billion in the fiscal years ending January 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
But those years saw steady growth, which accelerated from 2021 onwards after the coronavirus pandemic pushed more people to shop online and inflation made wealthy shoppers also look for value. Walmart had annual sales of about $681 billion in the fiscal year that ended earlier this year, an increase of about 40% from annual sales in Mr. McMillon’s first year on the job.
This year, Walmart is on track to surpass $700 billion in annual sales for the first time in its history. But ironically, the company is also expected to lose its position as the largest retailer by annual sales to its biggest e-commerce rival. Amazon.
Earlier this year, Amazon overtook Walmart in quarterly sales for the first time. Compared to Walmart, the company has a different business structure as it has large cloud computing, advertising, and merchant services businesses.
Comparison of Walmart stock price and competitors
During Mr. McMillon’s tenure, Amazon’s stock price has increased more than Walmart’s, with Amazon’s stock price increasing 1,225% compared to Walmart’s 312% increase.
But Wal-Mart’s performance on Wall Street far outpaces that of its big-box retail competitors. targetThis was when McMillon was CEO. Target’s stock is up about 60% since February 2014, while Walmart’s is up 312%.
Target’s stock price surge has outpaced Walmart’s stock price for several years during the coronavirus pandemic. But the Minneapolis-based cheap-chic retailer’s annual sales have been largely stagnant for about four years, weighing on its stock price.
Like Walmart, Target is preparing for a leadership change in February. Last month, Target announced that long-time CEO Brian Cornell would be replaced by chief operating officer and former CFO Michael Fidelke.
costco It also stands out as a competitor that has experienced faster stock price growth than Walmart. Shares of the Warehouse Club retailer, which competes with Walmart stores and those of its warehouse chain Sam’s Club, have soared more than 700% during Mr. McMillon’s tenure.
Walmart’s supermarket competitors — kroger and albertsonsespecially — we’re behind on that. Kroger, which owns about two dozen grocery chains including Fred Meyer and Ralphs, has seen its stock rise 265% during Mr. McMillon’s tenure. Shares of Albertsons, which includes Safeway, Tom Thumb and other grocery chains, rose just 16%.
Albertsons went public in 2020, giving the stock less time to appreciate. For about two of those years, from about 2022 to 2024, Kroger and Albertsons also explored merging the two companies to create a large-format grocery store that would be more competitive with the likes of Walmart, Costco and Amazon. The deal was ultimately blocked by a U.S. judge after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the merger.
Dollar stores also underperformed Walmart’s stock performance under McMillon. dollar tree and dollar generalCompanies that compete with Walmart in offering lower prices on groceries and other items posted market share increases of 104% and 85%, respectively, compared to Walmart’s 312% increase.
It’s worth noting that while there was a time when both Dollar Store banners’ stock prices outperformed Walmart’s, they have struggled recently.
Walmart’s stock price was essentially flat on Friday after the company announced its retirement, but the stock has risen about 13% this year.
— CNBC’s Tom Rotunno contributed to this report.
