Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT, XETRA:WMT)<\/a> had its price target lowered by UBS to $141 from $147 following the company\u2019s first-quarter results, while the broker said its longer-term view remains intact on Walmart\u2019s \u201csecond P&L,\u201d a term it uses to describe faster-growing, higher-margin revenue streams outside core retail, such as advertising, marketplace fees and membership income.<\/p>\nShares of Walmart closed out Friday’s session at about $120, up about 8% so far this year.<\/p>\n
The firm wrote in a note that expectations heading into the quarter had risen as investors positioned more heavily in Walmart amid a challenging consumer backdrop. While results came in below those elevated expectations, UBS pointed to underlying trends that it said continue to support the company\u2019s growth narrative, particularly in e-commerce and its expanding digital businesses.<\/p>\n
Walmart reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.66, in line with consensus estimates. US comparable sales rose 4.1%, supported by a 3% increase in transactions and a 1.1% rise in ticket, with e-commerce contributing 530 basis points to the comp.<\/p>\n
UBS highlighted continued momentum in Walmart\u2019s digital operations, with global e-commerce growth of 26% year over year. The firm also noted accelerating performance in alternative revenue streams, including a 50% increase in marketplace sales and 37% growth in global advertising, alongside roughly 17% growth in membership revenue.<\/p>\n
The report said Walmart continued to expand gross margins in the US, up around 30 basis points in the quarter, even after absorbing an estimated $175 million in incremental fuel costs. UBS believes that the result suggested improving contributions from higher-margin businesses such as advertising, marketplace, and membership services.<\/p>\n
The firm also pointed to Walmart\u2019s ongoing investments in faster delivery and logistics, noting that the company now reaches about 60% of the US population with delivery times of 30 minutes or less. E-commerce growth, it said, remained relatively consistent across geographies, including 26% growth in the US, 27% internationally, and 23% at Sam\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n
On the consumer backdrop, UBS said higher-income households continued to show resilience, while lower-income consumers remained under pressure from elevated fuel costs. It added that Walmart\u2019s strategy of maintaining lower prices appeared to support market share gains, reflected in continued traffic growth.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Walmart reiterated its financial guidance, including 3.5% to 4.5% net sales growth and 6% to 8% operating income growth in constant currency. UBS expects the contribution from Walmart\u2019s alternative revenue streams to increasingly offset external cost pressures over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walmart price target lowered by UBS as Q1 results miss elevated expectations Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[129],"tags":[32510,38104,38103,223,13228],"class_list":["post-71729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ubs","tag-expectations","tag-membership-revenue","tag-revenue-streams","tag-ubs","tag-walmart"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116636170835120895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Walmart](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/adb70953419340877b490723c802b3a0.jpeg\")
Walmart price target lowered by UBS as Q1 results miss elevated expectations Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n