We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: 10 Stocks to Buy and Sell. Since Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) ranks 3rd on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in a latest program discussed last week’s market selloff again, saying the notion the broader meltdown was because of “hard landing” fears is “totally false.” Cramer said that it was all related to the Japanese stock market and Yen, and “nothing more.”
“A bunch of money managers took advantage of how you can borrow against Japanese bonds which had a very low interest rate and then have relatively free money which you can put to work in stocks all around the globe, including here (the US),” Cramer said.
Jim Cramer said that small-cap stocks are “trying to come” back. However, he pointed to an “issue” with the small-cap rally. He said that no one actually bought individual small-cap stocks and instead loaded up on ETFs. Investors, according to Cramer, “walked away” when the broader market wavered.
For this article we watched the latest programs on Cramer recently aired on CNBC and picked 10 stocks he’s talking about. With each company we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
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Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 88
Jim Cramer was recently asked about Dollar Tree. He instead pitched Walmart and Costco as better companies. Cramer has been praising Walmart for offering affordable prices to customers during the inflationary crisis.
“We believe the company is in the early stages of an unprecedented profit growth acceleration for a large and mature retailer,” Piper Sandler recently said of WMT, setting a $81 price target on the stock.
Walmart shares are trending after the company threw it out of the park with its latest quarterly results and upped its full-year outlook, crushing all recession-related fears. Walmart executives noted no signs of weakness in August, with narrowing e-commerce losses and an uptick in high-income shoppers. CFO John Rainey said while cautious, Walmart isn’t forecasting a recession, and the back-to-school season is off to a strong start.
Morgan Stanley’s Simeon Gutman highlighted solid comparable sales growth and better-than-expected EBIT growth, driven by core and alternative profit streams. Jefferies’ Corey Tarlowe sees continued upside potential, citing strong traffic and improving e-commerce, with automation and AI likely to play key roles.
Walmart is no longer just a retailer with big stores. Omnichannel retail, ecommerce growth and ads business are the new growth catalysts for Walmart. Wall Street expects 9% EPS growth for Walmart is fiscal 2025, potentially followed by 10% and 12% in FY2026 and FY2027, respectively.
During the NYSE/Bank of America London Investor Conference, Walmart said that it expects revenue growth of 4% per year over the next five years, while operating income is expected to rise 8% per year.
Overall, Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) ranks 3rd on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: 10 Stocks to Buy and Sell. While we acknowledge the potential of Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than WMT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
