For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Walmart (WMT) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to WMT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Walmart's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Walmart's main business drivers.
Walmart Inc. has evolved from just being a traditional brick-and-mortar retailer into an omnichannel player. In this regard, acquisitions; partnerships; delivery programs like Walmart + and Express Delivery; and investment in online e-commerce platform Flipkart are noteworthy. These position the company to keep pace with the changing retail ecosystem and stay firm in the presence of rivals like Amazon and Target. Markedly, Walmart’s product offerings include almost everything from grocery to cosmetics, electronics to stationery, home furnishings to health and wellness products, and apparel to entertainment products, to name a few.
This Bentonville-based retailer operates variety stores, discount stores, supercenters, Sam’s Clubs and Neighborhood Markets, along with the websites – walmart.com and samsclub.com. The company offers merchandise under its private-label store brands, which comprises of Equate, Faded Glory, George, Great Value, Holiday Time, Mainstays, and others. The company also markets merchandise under licensed brands, such as, Better Homes & Gardens, General Electric and more.
The company operates as Walmart in the United States (its largest segment), including the 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Apart from United States, Walmart has operations in Canada, Chile, China, India, Mexico, Africa and Central America. The company operates in Mexico as Walmex and in India as Best Price. As of Nov. 19, 2024, Walmart operated more than 10,500 stores across 19 countries, alongside its e-commerce sites.
Walmart conducts its businesses under three segments, and generated revenues of $648 billion in fiscal 2024.
Walmart U.S. (68.2% of fiscal 2024 revenues) operates retail stores in different formats in the U.S. and also in Puerto Rico.
Walmart International (17.7%) consists of retail operations outside the United States.
Sam’s Club (13.3%) comprises membership warehouse clubs in the United States and in Puerto Rico.
On Jan 30, 2024, management authorized a three-for-one forward split of its common shares and a proportionate rise in the number of authorized shares. Consequently, each shareholder, as of Feb 22, 2024, will receive two extra shares of the common stock.
Bottom Line
While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Walmart ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in February 2015 would be worth $3,618.93, or a gain of 261.89%, as of February 13, 2025, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 189.78% and gold's return of 128.11% over the same time frame.
Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for WMT.
Walmart has outpaced the industry over the past year, benefiting from its diverse business model that spans multiple segments, channels and formats. The company's strong omnichannel strategy has boosted traffic across physical stores and digital platforms. Its emphasis on improving delivery services has been successful, contributing to steady grocery market share gains. Upsides like these, along with growth in the advertising business, fueled third-quarter fiscal 2025 results, wherein the top and bottom lines grew year over year, and e-commerce sales surged. However, Walmart is experiencing adverse currency movements and margin pressures from shifts in product mix. While raising its fiscal 2025 guidance, the company’s implied fourth-quarter view for revenues and operating income reflects a slowdown from the reported third-quarter figures.
The stock is up 13.43% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 4 higher, for fiscal 2025. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.Zacks' Research Chief Names "Stock Most Likely to Double"
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Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
