5 Best Grocery Stocks to Buy

3. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 68

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is an American chain of retail stores headquartered in  Bentonville, Arkansas. The company operates hypermarkets, department stores, and grocery stores, along with Sam’s Club, a chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs. After generating $570 billion in FY2021, Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) was the largest company by revenue according to  Fortune Global 500.

On December 1, Atlantic Equities analyst Daniela Nedialkova maintained an Outperform rating on Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and raised the price target to $165 from $150.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) makes it to our list of best grocery stocks and is on its way to becoming a dividend king as it has been increasing its dividends for the past 49 years. As of December 2, the company has a dividend yield of 1.46% with an annualized dividend payout of $2.24.

Here is what Leaven Partners has to say about Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“In our last quarterly letter, I briefly mentioned that the consensus estimates for corporate profits appeared to be a bit too sanguine. I referenced a Reuters article that reported, as of June 17, Wall Street expected S&P 500 earnings to grow by 9.6% in 2022, which was up from 8.8% in April and from 8.4% in January. That tune began to change at the end of July and accelerated in August and September, as major players, such as Walmart (NYSE:WMT), has recently issued profit warnings and/or have withdrawn guidance. In response, Wall Street has altered its outlook: lowering third-quarter profit growth to 4.6%[2] from 7.2% in early August and slashing full-year profit growth to 4.5%.”