Skip to Content
Morningstar
Get 14 Days Free

Walmart Inc WMT

Morningstar Rating
Rating as of

Morningstar’s Analysis

Valuation
Currency in USD
Is it the right time to buy or sell?
Find out with Morningstar Premium
Is it the right time to buy or sell?
Find out with Morningstar Premium

1-Star Price

PREMIUM

5-Star Price

PREMIUM

Economic Moat

PREMIUM

Capital Allocation

PREMIUM

Walmart's Better-Than-Expected Start to Fiscal 2022 Will Lift Our Near-Term Outlook; Shares Rich

Zain Akbari, CFA Equity Analyst

Analyst Note

| Zain Akbari, CFA |

Despite increasingly difficult comparisons, wide-moat Walmart saw strong fiscal 2022 first-quarter performance, with 3% revenue expansion spurred by growth in all channels and rising general merchandise sales. This should lead us to lift our near-term targets and our $124 fair value estimate by a mid-single-digit percentage. We attribute the results to transitory pandemic-related volatility and still expect low-single-digit sales growth and 4%-5% adjusted operating margins long-term. We suggest investors await a more attractive entry point, considering near-term volatility and intensifying competition.

Read Full Analysis

Company Profile

Business Description

America’s largest retailer by sales, Walmart operated over 11,400 stores under 54 banners at the end of fiscal 2021, selling a variety of general merchandise and grocery items. Its home market accounted for 78% of sales in fiscal 2021, with Mexico and Central America (6%) and Canada (4%) its largest external markets. In the United States, around 56% of sales come from grocery, 32% from general merchandise, and 10% from health and wellness items. The company operates several e-commerce properties apart from its eponymous site, including Flipkart and shoes.com (it also owns a roughly 10% stake in Chinese online retailer JD.com). Combined, e-commerce accounted for about 12% of fiscal 2021 sales.

Contact
702 Southwest 8th Street
Bentonville, AR, 72716
T +1 479 273-4000
Sector Consumer Defensive
Industry Discount Stores
Most Recent Earnings Apr 30, 2021
Fiscal Year End Jan 31, 2020
Stock Type Classic Growth
Employees 2,300,000

Related

Stock Analyst Update
Walmart Starts Off Fiscal 2022 Better Than We Expected
We suggest investors await a more attractive entry point.
Zain Akbari
Sustainability Matters
How to Find Gun Stocks in Your Fund Portfolios
Here are some steps you can take to analyze your exposure to gun manufacturers.
Jon Hale
Fund Spy
Why Vanguard Dividend Growth Remains One of the Best
This strategy can outperform again.
Alec Lucas
Stock Analyst Update
Walmart: Soft End to Year Doesn't Alter Long-Term View
We suggest investors await a more attractive entry point.
Zain Akbari
Commentary
5 Companies That Made the Best of a Bad Year
Here's how these companies shifted their thinking in 2020 to reflect pandemic-driven consumer trends.
Emelia Fredlick
Stock Strategist Industry Reports
Can Dollar Stores Defy Retail's Woes?
Small tickets and low-income customers are safeguards.
Zain Akbari
Stock Analyst Update
Walmart’s Sales Still Strong Amid Pandemic
Its refocused international portfolio is a long-term benefit to the wide-moat company.
Zain Akbari
Commentary
The Week Ahead: Walmart, Home Depot, and Macy’s to Report Earnings
We also expect reports from NVIDIA and Target.
Carole Hodorowicz
Commentary
Finally Time for Value Stocks to Shine?
As the pathway to economic normalization in 2021 becomes clear, the market has begun to favor value stocks over growth stocks.
David Sekera
Commentary
A Blank Check for Electric Vehicles?
What's electrifying the romance between SPACs and cleantech?
Morningstar Canada
ETF Specialist
A Silver-Rated ETF Filled With Dividend Diehards
This fund only invests in the most disciplined dividend payers.
Ryan Jackson
Fund Spy
More Gains for International-Equity Funds in the Third Quarter
Strong growth in Asia, especially China, drives stellar emerging-markets returns.
Claire Butz
Our Picks
9 Stocks to Avoid in a Struggling Economy
Walk away from these richly trading no-moat names with negative moat trends.
Susan Dziubinski
Stock Strategist
3 Retailers Ready to Go Back to School
These stores are ready for September stockpiling--and they've developed diverse revenue streams to deal with classes coming online.
Vikram Barhat
The Short Answer
What Is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?
Recent membership changes highlight confusion around the famous index.
Sachin Nagarajan
Stock Analyst Update
Strong U.S. Marks Propel Walmart’s Second Quarter
We expect to raise our $111 per share valuation for wide-moat Walmart by a mid-single-digit percentage.
Zain Akbari
Commentary
The Week Ahead: Home Depot, Walmart, and Target to Report Earnings
We are also expecting an earnings report from NVIDIA.
Carole Hodorowicz
Stock Analyst Update
Mixed First-Quarter Results at Walmart, Shares Rich
Our long-term view of the wide-moat retailer remains in place, and we suggest investors await a more attractive entry point.
Zain Akbari
Commentary
The Week Ahead: Walmart, Home Depot, and Target Report
Big companies in the consumer cyclical and consumer defensive sectors, as well as a big name in technology, are on our radar.
Carole Hodorowicz
Rekenthaler Report
Stock Market Signals, Then Versus Now
Clues from the largest-company lists.
John Rekenthaler

Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. And we have unwavering standards for how we keep that integrity intact, from our research and data to our policies on content and your personal data.

We’d like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business.

We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. Our investment management business generates asset-based fees, which are calculated as a percentage of assets under management. We also sell both admissions and sponsorship packages for our investment conferences and advertising on our websites and newsletters.

How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. We may use it to:

  • Verify your identity, personalize the content you receive, or create and administer your account.
  • Provide specific products and services to you, such as portfolio management or data aggregation.
  • Develop and improve features of our offerings.
  • Gear advertisements and other marketing efforts towards your interests.

To learn more about how we handle and protect your data, visit our privacy center.

Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investor’s point of view. We also respect individual opinions––they represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.