1. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q1 2024: 88
Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is the world’s largest brick and mortar retailer – a fact that provides it with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages see Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) benefit from a sizeable market that it has to maintain in order to keep up sales volume. However, at the same time, the retail industry is one of the most dynamic in the world because of the growth in eCommerce. Established firms like Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) can see their business disrupted should online retailers capture a greater share of their market. However, the firm has been using its considerable resources ($9.8 billion in cash) to grow its presence in eCommerce, automation, marketplaces, and advertising. These businesses come with the chance of improving Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s margins – which are notoriously low in retail. industry. At the same time, while the stock’s future will be judged on the strenght of these initiatives, at its heart, Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is still a traditional retailer. This means that sales volumes, price increases, and inflation all play a key role in determining its financial health.
During Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s first quarter earnings conference, management commented on its new initiatives. It shared:
And I think I’d first start with eCommerce. The strong performance at 22% growth is very helpful. We’ve picked up momentum in the marketplace. Really, really pleased to see a number — a really large number of new sellers come on board, and assortment’s well north of $400 million. We spent a lot of time talking about our customer experience score, which starts with the top of the funnel, and then we work our way all the way down the conversion. And as John David mentioned earlier, one of the components is perfect order. And as you look through results, it’s exciting to see more customers shopping more often, particularly in the marketplace. And then the categories that are really strong that are standing out is apparel and fashion online.
I’m really excited about what’s happening in men’s and women’s and kids apparel, we’ve seen growth there. And then our hardlines business has been strong over the quarter. It was helpful in the quarter to have Easter early and strong weather in March that give us a strong early start. And these businesses we call omni services like tire installation, as we mentioned earlier, having your prescription ready by ordering online or cake decorating, these are all great services that are relatively unique to Walmart to be able to enable those from a digital standpoint all the way through the store and then deliver to people’s home. So I really am excited about the convenience and the expansion and assortment that we’re offering.
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