I'll analyze ROIC (Return on Invested Capital) for Walmart and Costco. Let me start by loading the necessary financial data.

ROIC = NOPAT / Invested Capital, where: - NOPAT = Operating Income × (1 - Tax Rate) - Invested Capital = Total Assets - Current Liabilities (or more precisely, Fixed Assets + Net Working Capital)

Let me load the required metrics.Now let me compute ROIC using the annual data. I'll use the formula: ROIC = Operating Income × (1 - Tax Rate) / (Total Assets - Current Liabilities + Short-Term Debt). Since we don't have short-term debt separately, I'll use Total Assets - Current Liabilities as a proxy for invested capital.Now let me chart the ROIC comparison.

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Walmart vs Costco — ROIC (FY20–FY26)

ROIC = NOPAT / Invested Capital, where NOPAT = Operating Income × (1 − Tax Rate) and Invested Capital = Total Assets − Current Liabilities.

Costco has consistently generated superior ROIC, averaging ~17.4% over the period versus Walmart's ~11.5%. Key drivers:

• Asset-light model: Costco's invested capital base (~$30–40B) is roughly 4–5× smaller than Walmart's (~$150–177B), despite generating about 40% of Walmart's revenue. Costco's lean warehouse format, rapid inventory turnover, and membership model produce high capital efficiency.
• Walmart's capital intensity: Walmart operates ~10,500 stores globally with a vast real estate footprint, keeping its invested capital base large and ROIC structurally lower.
• Converging trend: Walmart's ROIC has improved from ~9.8% in FY20 to ~13.7% in FY25, narrowing the gap. Costco peaked at 20.4% in FY24 before edging down to 19.4% in FY25.