Amazon vs Walmart: Using Financial Ratios to Compare Companies

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Case

Reference no. W36678

Subject category: Finance, Accounting and Control

Authors: Vineet Yagnik (Ivey Publishing, Western University); Mitchell G Rothstein (Ivey Business School, Western University); Mitchell Stein (Ivey Business School, Western University)

Published by: Ivey Publishing

Originally published in: 2024

Version: 2025-10-03

Revision date: 8-Apr-2025

Length: 11 pages

Data source: Published sources

Topics: Financial statement ratio analysis; Accounting; Finance

Share a link: https://casecent.re/p/197915

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Abstract

In 2021, an investment management firm analyst needed to convince his portfolio manager that technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon) could have a strong investment thesis since they improved upon existing business models. To make his argument, he used financial ratio analysis to compare one of the portfolio manager's favourite companies, Walmart Inc. (Walmart), with a more technologically focused competitor in the retail space, Amazon. By analyzing the two companies using ratio analysis to highlight their similarities, the analyst sought to show his portfolio manager that Amazon was not only a technology company, but a better version of Walmart.