Is the business good?
How good a business is GWW?
W. W. Grainger earns 36% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
36%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 27 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 15%
Operating margin · Industrial Distribution median 8.5% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.81×
Cash conversion · 0.74× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −1.9%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 8.6% |
| FY2021 | 12% |
| FY2022 | 15% |
| FY2023 | 16% |
| FY2024 | 15% |
| FY2025 | 14% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 39%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 15%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 9.9%
- Free cash flow margin
- 8.0%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $18.8B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $1.51B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.87B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 36%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Industrial Distribution
Ranks #7 of 17 by Smart Score