New York, Feb 24, 2026, 15:03 EST — Regular session
- Walmart shares up about 0.7% in afternoon trading, hovering below recent highs
- Evercore ISI and Barclays lifted price targets, leaning on digital, ads and membership momentum
- A Form 4 filing showed an executive vice president sold shares last week
Walmart Inc shares edged higher on Tuesday, up 0.7% at $126.65 as of 2:55 p.m. EST. The stock has traded between $124.91 and $128.04 in the session. (Investing)
The move matters because Walmart has become a heavyweight bet on the U.S. consumer, and it is priced that way. Investors are also trying to figure out how much of the next leg comes from stores — and how much comes from the newer, higher-margin lines.
Those newer lines are the pitch right now: online marketplace fees, advertising and paid membership. They carry better margins than groceries and general merchandise, but they are still watched closely because they can slow quickly if demand softens.
Evercore ISI lifted its price target on Walmart to $135 from $130, while Barclays raised its target to $132 from $125, according to notes cited by Investing.com. Evercore flagged Walmart’s online-sales growth and argued the company’s digital business is nearing $100 billion in the U.S. and about $150 billion globally. (Investing)
Evercore said the stock’s valuation already bakes in a lot, but pointed to a growing base of Walmart+ households and a bigger advertising business as support. It also trimmed earnings per share, or EPS (profit per share), estimates by about 1%, citing items such as liability claims and stepped-up grocery price investments, the report said. (Investing)
Barclays called out unit-share gains and said easing year-ago “tariff” costs could help comparisons later on — “anniversary” shorthand for a prior-year headwind dropping out of the math. The bank also said Walmart’s fiscal 2027 EPS guidance of about $2.96 lagged consensus, though it sees a path to $3.15 or more. (Investing)
The broader tape helped. Wall Street bounced back on Tuesday with the S&P 500 up 0.77% and the Nasdaq higher by just over 1% in late morning, Reuters reported. “We’re not there yet, but nobody wants to be the last one holding the bag,” Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth, told Reuters. (Reuters)
Still, some investors were looking at the insider blotter. A Form 4 filing showed Executive Vice President Nicholas Christopher James sold 34,082 Walmart shares on Feb. 20 at $122 a share, leaving him with 533,465.838 shares, according to the filing signed on Feb. 23. (SEC)
But the bigger risk for bulls is simpler: expectations are high and the multiple is rich. “Historically management tends to be conservative when providing its initial guide for the year,” Evercore ISI analyst Greg Melich said in a Reuters report last week, adding that investors were setting a high bar with the stock near highs. (Reuters)
Next up is the next earnings report, due May 14. (Yahoo)
