Alexander Farnsworth
Piper Sandler started off coverage on Walmart (NYSE:WMT) with an Overweight rating. The firm thinks the strong year-to-date rally still has legs to run further. “We believe the company is in the early stages of an unprecedented profit growth acceleration for a large and mature retailer,” noted analyst Peter Keith. The view on Walmart (WMT) is that it is leveraging its massive omnichannel model to drive significant valuation creation in the form of new and high-margin revenue streams such as supplier advertising and the e-commerce marketplace. While Walmart (WMT) has an attractive medium-term annual EBIT growth target of 4% to 8%, Keith and his team expect the high margin revenue streams to drive EBIT growth at or above the high end of this range over the next five years.
Piper Sandler set a price target of $81 on Walmart (WMT). About $5 of the value of Walmart (WMT) was noted to be tied to the retail giant’s ~85% ownership of both Flipkart and PhonePe in India.
Walmart (WMT) is very well liked on Wall Street, with 34 out of 39 firms covering the stock having a Buy-equivalent rating or higher. A majority of Seeking Alpha analysts have Hold-equivalent ratings. The Seeking Alpha Quant Rating is also flashing Hold.
Shares of Walmart (WMT) edged 0.45% higher in premarket action to $70.20.