New York, Feb 24, 2026, 15:03 EST — Regular session
- Walmart shares picked up around 0.7% in afternoon trading, still sitting just under their recent highs.
- Evercore ISI and Barclays bumped up their price targets, citing strength in digital, advertising, and membership gains.
- An executive vice president unloaded shares last week, according to a Form 4 filing.
Walmart Inc added 0.7% to $126.65 by 2:55 p.m. EST Tuesday. Shares moved between $124.91 and $128.04 during the session.
This shift is significant: Walmart’s valuation now reflects its status as a major proxy for U.S. consumer health. Investors are picking apart what portion of future growth will still come from traditional stores versus what’s being driven by newer, more profitable business segments.
Right now, the focus is on those newer lines—fees from the online marketplace, advertising, and paid memberships. Margins here top those of groceries or general merchandise, but these revenue streams get extra scrutiny since a dip in demand can hit them fast.
Evercore ISI bumped up its price target on Walmart, now looking for $135 instead of $130. Barclays, for its part, moved its target to $132 from $125, according to notes cited by Investing.com. Evercore pointed to Walmart’s online sales, highlighting momentum there, and said the retailer’s digital business is closing in on $100 billion in the U.S., $150 billion worldwide.
Evercore flagged that much of the positive outlook is already reflected in the stock price, but highlighted the expanding Walmart+ user base and a ramped-up ad segment as positives. Still, the firm shaved its earnings per share estimates by roughly 1%, mentioning factors like liability claims and increased spending to keep grocery prices down, according to the report.
Barclays highlighted Walmart’s share gains in units and pointed to softening “tariff” costs from last year, which could boost comparisons once those headwinds fall away—“anniversary” meaning the issue ages out of year-over-year math. The bank noted Walmart’s fiscal 2027 EPS target of roughly $2.96 comes in below consensus, but it’s not ruling out a climb to $3.15 or higher. Investing
Some support from the broader market showed up. Wall Street staged a rebound Tuesday, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.77% and the Nasdaq up a little more than 1% by late morning, according to Reuters. “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
Even so, the insider activity caught some eyes. A Form 4 dropped, showing Executive Vice President Nicholas Christopher James unloading 34,082 Walmart shares at $122 apiece on Feb. 20. That transaction brought his remaining stake to 533,465.838 shares, per the Feb. 23 filing.
The more pressing issue for bullish investors? Lofty expectations—and a pricey valuation to match. “Historically management tends to be conservative when providing its initial guide for the year,” Evercore ISI’s Greg Melich told Reuters last week. Still, he noted, investors are raising the bar as the stock trades close to its highs. Reuters
The next earnings report lands May 14.
