Walmart (WMT): Stock, Financials, Earnings & Company Overview

Quick Facts

What Is Walmart?

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates supercenters, discount stores, supermarkets, and membership warehouse clubs, alongside a rapidly growing eCommerce and digital advertising business. It describes itself as a “people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer” that helps customers save money, whether they shop in a physical store, online at walmart.com, or through the Walmart app.

Each week, roughly 280 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,900 stores and clubs across 19 countries, or shop through its eCommerce platforms. The company runs three main reporting segments, Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club, and increasingly generates profit not just from selling goods but from advertising (Walmart Connect), membership fees, and financial and marketplace services layered on top of its retail network.

Company History

Walmart traces its roots to Sam Walton, who ran a series of Ben Franklin variety stores in Arkansas during the 1950s before deciding to build his own discount retail concept. The first Walmart Discount City store opened on July 2, 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas, built on the idea of selling name brand merchandise at low prices with high volume rather than high margins.

The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1969 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Growth accelerated through the 1970s and 1980s as Walmart expanded across the American South and Midwest, and the company launched Sam’s Club, its membership warehouse concept, in 1983. Walmart became the largest retailer in the United States by the early 1990s and the largest company by revenue in the world for much of the 2000s and 2010s.

The company changed its legal name to Walmart Inc. in February 2018 to reflect its growing digital and omnichannel focus, having acquired Jet.com in 2016 to accelerate its eCommerce push. In December 2025, Walmart moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq. In February 2026, Walmart became the first traditional brick and mortar retailer to be valued at over $1 trillion in market capitalization, even as Amazon overtook it as the world’s largest company by annual revenue for the first time.

Founders

Walmart was founded by two brothers from Arkansas who built the company from a single discount store into the world’s largest retailer.

The Walton family remains one of the largest shareholders in Walmart today, decades after Sam Walton’s death, and consistently ranks among the wealthiest families in the world largely due to their continued ownership stake in the company.

CEO

John Furner became Walmart’s President and CEO on February 1, 2026. A more than three decade Walmart veteran, Furner most recently served as President and CEO of Walmart U.S. before his promotion, and previously led Sam’s Club. He succeeded Doug McMillon, who had led Walmart since 2014 and helped transform the company into a technology-driven omnichannel retailer during his tenure.

Walmart’s CEOs have been:

• Sam Walton (1962 to 1988)
• David Glass (1988 to 2000)
• H. Lee Scott (2000 to 2009)
• Mike Duke (2009 to 2014)
• Doug McMillon (2014 to January 2026)
• John Furner (February 2026 to present)

Headquarters

Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the company has operated since Sam Walton opened his first stores nearby in Rogers. The company has invested heavily in a new home office campus in Bentonville in recent years to support its growing corporate workforce. Walmart employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide, making it the largest private employer on the planet.

Business Segments

Walmart reports its results across three primary segments:

• Walmart U.S.: The company’s largest segment by far, encompassing Supercenters, discount stores, and Neighborhood Markets across the United States, along with walmart.com. It represented about 68% of fiscal 2026 consolidated net sales.
• Walmart International: Retail operations outside the United States, spanning markets such as Mexico, Canada, China, Chile, and Central America, along with majority owned businesses like Flipkart and PhonePe in India.
• Sam’s Club: The company’s membership-only warehouse club business operating in the United States, competing directly with Costco and BJ’s Wholesale.

Layered across all three segments is Walmart Connect, the company’s fast growing retail media and advertising arm, which monetizes Walmart’s enormous customer traffic through sponsored product listings and connected TV advertising.

Products & Services

• General merchandise and grocery: Walmart’s core business, spanning groceries, household goods, apparel, electronics, home goods, and seasonal items sold in stores and online.
• Walmart+: A paid membership program offering free shipping, fuel discounts, and streaming perks, competing directly with Amazon Prime.
• Sam’s Club: Bulk and warehouse-format retail requiring a paid membership.
• Walmart Marketplace: A third-party seller platform that lets outside merchants list products on walmart.com, expanding Walmart’s online assortment.
• Walmart Connect: The company’s retail media and advertising network, including its VIZIO smart TV advertising business and the newly acquired Vibe.co connected TV ad platform.
• Financial services: Money transfers, bill payments, check cashing, prepaid cards, and installment lending offered in stores and online.
• Health and wellness: Pharmacy, optical, hearing, and over-the-counter health services inside many Walmart locations.
• AI powered shopping: Walmart’s Sparky AI assistant, along with integrations that let customers discover and buy Walmart products through Google’s Gemini AI platform.

Revenue Breakdown

Walmart earns the vast majority of its revenue from net sales of merchandise across its three segments, supplemented by membership fees and a smaller but fast growing pool of “other income” that includes advertising.

eCommerce and advertising growth

Global eCommerce sales reached $150.4 billion in fiscal 2026, up 24% year over year and now representing roughly 23% of total net sales, while Walmart Connect, the company’s advertising business, grew 46% to $6.4 billion in annual revenue. These faster growing, higher margin businesses are becoming an increasingly important part of Walmart’s profit story alongside its traditional retail operations.

Revenue growth trend

Financial Performance

Walmart’s fiscal 2026 (ended January 31, 2026) delivered record revenue and improved profitability, driven by strong eCommerce growth, membership income, and a fast growing advertising business. The company’s first quarter of fiscal 2027 continued that momentum on the top line, though a worse than expected earnings outlook and rising fuel costs weighed on investor sentiment.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, Walmart guided to adjusted EPS of $0.72 to $0.74, below analyst expectations at the time, and reiterated its full year outlook calling for net sales growth of 3.5% to 4.5% and adjusted operating income growth of 6% to 8%. Management pointed to a roughly $175 million headwind from higher fuel costs in its supply chain as a key factor weighing on near term guidance, while maintaining that the underlying business remains strong.

Stock Information

Walmart shares moved from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq in December 2025 and continue to trade under the ticker WMT. The stock has been a strong performer over the past several years, crossing a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time in February 2026, a milestone no traditional brick and mortar retailer had previously reached.

With a trailing P/E near 39x, WMT trades at a significant premium to the broader market and to many retail peers, reflecting investor confidence in its steady earnings growth, defensive business model, and expanding higher margin advertising and membership revenue streams. Some analysts have flagged the valuation as rich relative to Walmart’s historical average, even as the company continues to post record results.

Dividends

Walmart is a Dividend King, a rare distinction reserved for companies that have raised their dividend annually for at least 50 consecutive years. Walmart paid its first dividend of $0.05 per share back in 1974 and has increased it every year since, a streak that reached 53 consecutive years after its February 2026 increase.

While Walmart’s dividend yield is modest compared to some income focused stocks, the company pairs its payout with large scale share buybacks, including a new $30 billion repurchase program approved in February 2026, the largest in company history. Walmart’s conservative payout ratio leaves ample room for continued annual dividend growth in the years ahead.

Competitors

Walmart competes across grocery, general merchandise, warehouse retail, and increasingly eCommerce and digital advertising, putting it up against a wide range of rivals.

Walmart’s scale, low price positioning, and expanding omnichannel and advertising capabilities remain its biggest competitive advantages, though Amazon’s continued growth in both eCommerce and its own advertising business represents the most significant long term competitive threat.

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