The Walmart logo is seen near the store in Austin, the United States, on October 23, 2025.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurfoto | fake images
upon entering Walmart CEO John Furner takes over the retailer's top job and will look to continue a period of dramatic stock growth that many of Walmart's rivals have failed to match.
Walmart shares have more than quadrupled since outgoing CEO Doug McMillon took over in February 2014. For nine of the 12 calendar years that McMillon has led Walmart, the company has posted positive stock returns.
Among Walmart's main rivals in the retail and food business, only Amazon and costco have had better stock returns since McMillon took office. Meanwhile, Walmart stock has outperformed competitors like Aim, general dollar, dollar tree, kroger and Albertson.
McMillon will officially step down from his role at the end of January, but will remain as CEO and advisor. While Furner will face the challenge of replicating the company's performance under his predecessor, he has been a key catalyst for the company's success as CEO of its largest sector, Walmart's US business.
Along with huge gains on Wall Street, McMillon oversaw a significant period of growth for the country's largest grocer, including strong sales increases, wage increases for hourly workers and the transformation of the country's low-price leader into a major e-commerce player. He also guided the retailer through the tumult of a global pandemic, historic levels of inflation and higher tariffs.
Sales during McMillon's first three years in office were virtually flat, with revenues of $486 billion, $482 billion and $485 billion in the fiscal years just ended. January 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Those years were followed by steady growth, however, and those gains have accelerated since 2021, after the Covid pandemic prompted more people to shop online and inflation pushed even wealthier shoppers to look for value. Walmart posted annual revenue of about $681 billion in the fiscal year that ended earlier this year, an increase of about 40% over the company's annual revenue the first year of McMillon's tenure.
This year, Walmart is on track to record annual revenue of more than $700 billion for the first time in its history. Ironically, however, it is also expected to lose its crown as the largest retailer by annual revenue to its biggest e-commerce rival, Amazon.
Earlier this year, Amazon surpassed Walmart in quarterly sales for the first time. Compared to Walmart, it has a different business mix due to its huge cloud computing, advertising and retail services businesses.
How Walmart Stock Compares to Its Rivals
Amazon's stock gains have outpaced Walmart's over the years of McMillon's tenure, with stock gains of 1,225% by the tech giant compared to a 312% rise by Walmart.
However, Walmart's performance on Wall Street has far surpassed that of its large retail competitors. AimThis is about McMillon's time as CEO. Target shares have risen about 60% since February 2014, compared to Walmart's gains of 312%.
During the Covid pandemic years, Target's stock's strong gains outpaced Walmart's. However, the Minneapolis-based cheap-and-chic retailer's annual sales have been virtually stagnant for about four years and dragged down its stock performance.
Like Walmart, Target is preparing for a leadership change in February. Last month, Target said Michael Fiddelke, its chief operating officer and former chief financial officer, would succeed former CEO Brian Cornell.
costco It also stands out as a competitor that has seen steeper share gains than Walmart. Shares of the warehouse club retailer, which competes with both Walmart stores and its warehouse chain, Sam's Club, have soared more than 700% during McMillon's years in office.
Walmart's supermarket competitors: kroger and Albertsonin particular, they have been left behind. Shares of Kroger, which includes about two dozen supermarket chains including Fred Meyer and Ralphs, rose 265% during McMillon's tenure. Shares of Albertsons, which includes Safeway, Tom Thumb and other supermarket chains, rose just 16%.
Albertsons went public in 2020, giving it less time to make stock gains. For about two of those years, from about 2022 to 2024, Kroger and Albertsons also sought to merge their two companies into a larger grocery store that could better compete with Walmart, Costco, Amazon and others. The deal was ultimately blocked by a US judge, after the Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the merger.
Dollar stores also failed to match Walmart's stock performance while McMillon was CEO. dollar tree and general dollarthat compete with Walmart by offering groceries and other items at low prices, posted share gains of 104% and 85%, respectively, compared to Walmart's 312% increase.
Notably, shares of both dollar stores outperformed Walmart's during some of those years, although more recently they have struggled.
Walmart shares were mostly flat on Friday following the announcement of its retirement, and the stock is up about 13% this year.
— CNBC's Tom Rotunno contributed to this report.
