Walmart Bears Are The Dumbest Thing on Wall Street

In the age of Amazon, everyone is at risk. But Walmart has shown it can roll with the punches, sending its stock to new highs and serving up innovation that only a retailer 55 years in the making could conjure up. This holiday season, Walmart could be calling checkmate.

Author:: Kinsey Grant
Publish date:: Nov 20, 2017 7:00 AM EST

Before there was Amazon, before there was Whole Foods, before there was Costco or Dollar Tree - there was Walmart. It's been around since 1962, but if you think that Walmart is going to sit back and let traditional retail die, you've got to be one of the dumbest on Wall Street.

Walmart is not the cumbersome big-box retailer some might paint it to be. It's adapting to the digital world at an impressive rate, offering promotions, inking partnerships and doing smart acquisitions that appeal to more than just the old biddies shopping the grocery section. And Wall Street notices: Walmart's shares are hovering around an all-time high after a strong third quarter!

One source I spoke with put it this way: Walmart knows that it can't get you a rare German children's book overnight, but it also knows Amazon has a tough time selling Lysol or milk. So, Walmart is working on upping its game in e-commerce with moves such as last year's Jet.com acquisition. Sure, Amazon is moving into brick-and-mortar, but Walmart has at least 30 years' experience to Amazon's less than a decade.

It's going to be tough to beat Walmart, no matter how you look at it. In the third quarter of this year, Walmart's e-commerce increased an impressive 50%. Same store sales grew 2.7% and same-store traffic jumped 1.5%. It was only the second time since 2001 that Walmart beat estimates on earnings and sales and raised guidance.

So as traditional retail faces off with the growing e-commerce world, I think 55 is the new 20. If you're still bearish on Walmart after all this exemplified success and adaptation, you're probably one of the dumbest on Wall Street.

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