Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) stock is climbing on Wednesday, energized by a wave of bullish analyst sentiment and aggressive operational updates that have retail traders tracking the retail giant.
The Nasdaq is down 0.16% while the S&P 500 has shed 0.50%.
• Walmart stock is moving in positive territory. Why is WMT stock advancing?
Analyst Reiterations Fuel Momentum
On Wednesday, BTIG reiterated its buy rating on Walmart, maintaining its $145 price target. This follows action on Friday from Tigress Financial, which maintained its buy rating and raised its price target to $155.
The Offline AI Advantage
Adding to the momentum, media outlet The Information reported Wednesday that Walmart is using its more than 3,500 U.S. superstores to train its AI assistant, Sparky, on how people shop before they buy. The retailer views tracking this offline behavior as a major AI advantage against competitors like Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary Google, and OpenAI.
Walmart did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
Scaling Supply Chain Efficiency
Operational upgrades also support the stock’s upward trajectory. On May 26, Walmart announced its “Prepaid Consolidation” program to accelerate product delivery to shelves.
“We’re focused on making our supply chain simpler, faster and more efficient for suppliers, while also keeping products in stock for our customers,” stated Mike Gray, senior vice president of Supply Chain at Walmart U.S.
Expanding Ultra-Fast Delivery
Furthermore, on May 28, Walmart expanded its 30-minute-or-less delivery across 33 U.S. markets.
Tracy Poulliot, chief e-commerce officer at Walmart U.S., noted, “We’ve been delivering orders in 30 minutes or less for more than a year, and today 26% of our Express Deliveries are already arriving in that timeframe.”
Walmart Stock: Key Levels and Momentum Indicators
From a longer-term trend view, Walmart is holding just above its 200-day SMA at $115.20, but it’s still trading 7.4% below the 20-day SMA at $125.71 and 7.8% below the 50-day SMA at $126.18, keeping the intermediate trend under pressure.
The 20-day SMA sitting below the 50-day SMA reinforces that near-term rebounds are still fighting a bearish crossover, even though the 50-day SMA remains above the 200-day SMA (a more constructive longer-term backdrop).
Momentum is the bigger story right now: RSI is 26.13.
- Key Resistance: $129
- Key Support: $110
WMT Stock Price Activity: Walmart shares were up 3.13% at $116.60 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Image by iama_sing via Shutterstock
Recent Comments