Walmart Remains In The Red in 2026: 49% Gains Await Investors Who Act Now According to This Wall Street Pro

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT | WMT Price Prediction) trades at $104.26. The average analyst price target stands at $126.78, which means 21.6% upside.

Walmart runs the largest discount store chain in the U.S., plus Sam’s Club and fast-growing advertising, marketplace, and membership businesses. Tigress Financial’s Chief Investment Strategist Ivan Feinseth set a Street-high $155 target, means 48.7% upside.

A Strong Quarter Couldn’t Stop a 23% Slide From the High

The selloff accelerated after second-quarter earnings when weak guidance outweighed strong results. Adjusted EPS of $0.81 beat the $0.74 consensus, and revenue rose 5.9%. Management guided third-quarter EPS to $0.62 to $0.64, below the prior $0.6834 estimate. The consensus has since fallen to $0.6352, with 29 downward revisions and no upward ones.

Three headwinds pressured guidance. Walmart expects more than $2 billion in extra fuel costs, new drug pricing rules are cutting about 125 basis points from U.S. comparable sales, and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sale creates a third-quarter headwind of more than 100 basis points.

Shares sit 22.7% below the 52-week high of $134.84 and below the 200-day moving average of $118.32. For a stock with a beta of 0.595 and a valuation near 38 times trailing earnings, that is a steep pullback.

Why the Street’s Biggest Bull Still Sees a Path to $155

Tigress says Walmart is becoming a higher-margin business. Global advertising grew 38%, Walmart Connect grew 43%, U.S. marketplace sales jumped 52%, and membership income rose 17%. Management said about half of operating profit growth came from these platform businesses.

E-commerce supports the efficiency side of the thesis. U.S. online sales grew more than 20% for the 10th consecutive quarter and posted double-digit incremental margins in the first half. Automated facilities now handle more than 50% of e-commerce fulfillment volume.

Analysts remain generally positive. The 43 covering analysts break down as follows:

• Strong Buy: 10
• Buy: 27
• Hold: 5
• Strong Sell: 1

Their numbers have been slipping, though. The EPS consensus for the fiscal year ending in January 2028 fell to $3.2255 from $3.2858 90 days ago. Over the past 30 days, analysts cut that estimate 25 times and raised it only 4 times. At that EPS, a $155 stock would trade at about 48 times forward earnings, versus about 32 times today. The near-term catalysts are the third-quarter report and market share gains from more than 11,000 price rollbacks, which are funded by about $2.9 billion in tariff refunds.

Walmart Fell While Target Held Its Gains

The peer group held up while Walmart fell. Target (NYSE:TGT) is up 63.92% this year at $155.99. Its $164.68 target means just 5.6% upside, and Hold ratings lead with 22, while 12 analysts rate it Buy or Strong Buy and 4 rate it Strong Sell.

Walmart has the largest consensus upside in the group. That makes it the clearest case of a gap between the share price and analyst targets.

Walmart Sits Well Below Its Average Analyst Target

At $104.26, Walmart stands 21.6% below the $126.78 average target set by 43 analysts. Price targets are estimates, and they can be wrong.

I Lean Toward Walmart, but $155 Is a Stretch

Optimists get a boost if advertising, marketplace and membership keep growing faster than retail sales, and if the rollbacks lead to lasting share gains that lift fourth-quarter results. Risks grow if fuel costs and pharmacy deflation keep driving estimates lower, because a multiple near 32 times forward earnings leaves little room for cuts.

I lean bullish. Walmart raised full-year EPS guidance to $2.80 to $2.87 and still has $25.1 billion left in its buyback authorization. The consensus target looks reachable. Tigress’s $155 needs both earnings growth and a higher valuation, so it represents the best-case scenario.

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