Which was the better investment since 2005, Home Depot or Walmart?

Home Depot was the better investment. $1,000 invested in Home Depot in 2005 would be worth $11,610 today, compared to $9,163 for Walmart.

What would $1,000 in Home Depot vs Walmart be worth today?

$1,000 invested in Home Depot in 2005 would be worth $11,610 today (+1061.0%). The same $1,000 in Walmart would be worth $9,163 (+816.3%).

How do Home Depot and Walmart compare to the S&P 500 since 2005?

The same $1,000 invested in the S&P 500 in 2005 would be worth $9,567 today (+856.7%). Home Depot returned $11,610 and Walmart returned $9,163 over the same period.

Home Depot vs Walmart: $1,000 invested since 2005

HD vs WMT · Data through 2026-10-01

Investment amount

$1,000 invested in 2005 would be worth

Home DepotWinner

$11,612

+1061.2%

Walmart

$9,164

+816.4%

The same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $9,567(+856.7%)

Growth of $1,000

Home Depot vs. Walmart vs. S&P 500, 2005 to present

Year-by-year comparison

Home Depot vs. Walmart, 2005 to present

Year	Home Depot	Return	Walmart	Return	S&P 500
2005	$1,000	-	$1,000	-	$1,000
2006	$993	-0.7%	$891	-10.9%	$1,098
2007	$1,015	+2.3%	$935	+5.0%	$1,261
2008	$784	-22.8%	$1,014	+8.4%	$1,227
2009	$571	-27.1%	$958	-5.5%	$758
2010	$772	+35.2%	$1,110	+15.9%	$1,005
2011	$1,045	+35.4%	$1,191	+7.4%	$1,228
2012	$1,299	+24.3%	$1,340	+12.4%	$1,280
2013	$2,001	+54.1%	$1,565	+16.8%	$1,491
2014	$2,346	+17.2%	$1,712	+9.4%	$1,811
2015	$3,257	+38.8%	$1,996	+16.6%	$2,066
2016	$4,001	+22.9%	$1,602	-19.7%	$2,048
2017	$4,470	+11.7%	$1,658	+3.5%	$2,458
2018	$6,678	+49.4%	$2,717	+63.9%	$3,104
2019	$6,239	-6.6%	$2,501	-8.0%	$3,029
2020	$7,965	+27.7%	$3,048	+21.9%	$3,678
2021	$9,680	+21.5%	$3,803	+24.8%	$4,310
2022	$13,390	+38.3%	$3,845	+1.1%	$5,309
2023	$12,126	-9.4%	$4,018	+4.5%	$4,875
2024	$13,570	+11.9%	$4,686	+16.6%	$5,879
2025	$16,227	+19.6%	$8,451	+80.3%	$7,421
2026	$15,122	-6.8%	$10,355	+22.5%	$8,633

Which came out ahead

From a $1,000 stake at the start of 2005, Home Depot (HD) came out ahead of Walmart (WMT). That $1,000 grew to $11,610 in HD versus $9,163 in WMT as of 2026-10-01, roughly $2,447 more in the end.

The headline returns line up with the dollar figures. Home Depot returned +1061.0% against Walmart at +816.3%, a gap of about 244.7 percentage points over the 21.8-year window. Compounded, that is about 11.9% a year for HD against 10.7% for WMT.

Home Depot cleared a plain S&P 500 fund over the same span while Walmart fell short of it. The index would have grown that $1,000 to about $9,567, compounding near 10.9% a year. Across this long 21.8-year window, small annual differences compounded into the wide ending gap. All figures use split-adjusted closing prices and exclude dividends, taxes, fees, and inflation, so a real after-tax result would differ.

This is a record of what already happened, not financial advice or a recommendation of either name. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Other start years

Home Depot vs Walmart from a different starting point

Since 2000 Since 2010 Since 2015 Since 2020 Since 2023

Individual stock pages

Home Depot since 2005+1061.0%Walmart since 2005+816.3%

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For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All calculations are based on split-adjusted closing prices from Yahoo Finance and do not account for dividends, taxes, or trading fees. See our methodology and full disclaimer.