LOW vs UNP Comparison

Lowe's is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world, operating 1,750 stores in the United States, after the 2023 divestiture of its Canadian locations (RONA, Lowe's Canada, Réno-Dépôt, and Dick's Lumber). The firm's stores offer products and services for home decorating, maintenance, repair, and remodeling, with maintenance and repair accounting for two thirds of products sold. Lowe's primarily targets retail do-it-yourself (around 70% of sales) and do-it-for-me customers, but has expanded its commercial and professional business clients to 30% from less than 20% in the past six years. We estimate Lowe's captures a high-single-digit share of the domestic home improvement market, based on US Census data and management's market size estimates.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific is the largest public railroad in North America. Operating on more than 30,000 miles of track in the western two thirds of the US, Union Pacific generated $24 billion of revenue in 2024 by hauling coal, industrial products, intermodal containers, agriculture goods, chemicals, fertilizers, and automotive goods. Union Pacific owns about one fourth of Mexican railroad Ferromex and historically derives roughly 10% of its revenue hauling freight to and from Mexico.