Top 8 Discount Stores Stocks For 2025

1. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Walmart Inc. operates wholesale, retail, and e-commerce businesses throughout the world. It has three main business units; Walmart International, Walmart U.S., and Sam’s Club.  An 81% performance in the last year has meant that investors continue to fear high valuations. The stock is trading at all-time highs and even tariffs couldn’t negatively impact the stock.

There is a good chance that most of Walmart’s non-grocery items are sourced from China. Investors consider the company strong enough to withstand the tariffs either by passing the cost on to consumers or by absorbing it. In both cases, there is a short-term and long-term negative impact. It is what it is.

On the other hand, most of the optimism surrounding Walmart stems from its innovation. The company is building 150 new stores that it dubs ‘Store of the Future’. One of the initiatives includes providing EV fast charging in its parking lots. On the e-commerce front, the use of AI to create personalized shopping experiences will likely help them increase the amount of spending per consumer when on its platform.

The company’s media business Walmart Connect is also growing consistently, up 26% in the third quarter. All these developments mean investors are looking at the advantages of these innovations rather than the impact of tariffs.

Walmart Inc. is not on our latest list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 88 hedge fund portfolios held WMT at the end of the third quarter which was 95 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of WMT as a leading AI investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 as promising as 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 was originally published at Insider Monkey.