Analyst Calls Walmart (WMT) the 'Nvidia of Retail'

Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) is one of the 10 Buzzing Stocks to Watch as AI Trade Makes a Comeback.

Scott Mushkin, founder and CEO of R5 Capital, called Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) the Nvidia of retail during a recent program on CNBC. The analyst said Walmart is one of his top picks.

“You know, that’s our top pick. We had a buy on it for about three years, took it off for a couple months, and then have reestablished it as a buy. It’s actually again our number one pick. Things are really changing at Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT).”

Mushkin, however, talked more about the broader retail industry instead of Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) and talked about reasons for being cautious:

“Tariffs are definitely a factor. But we look at all of discretionary items. Another, you know, good figure is you look at furniture. Since 1995, volume purchases of furniture up 250%. So we don’t think consumerism is dead in the US. In fact, we think they’re really trying to get more of the fruits of the economy down to the bottom 90%, and be much less dependent on a top 10%’s purchases or consumption of imported goods. But we do wonder where that money, if this is successful, ultimately gets spent, and we’re cautious on discretionary generally speaking in the next 6 months. Again, I think that caution is still there even though the sector underperformed. You have very low population growth. You have tariffs coming on. So, you know, we remain very cautious on the industry. And then one other thing I would point out is competition — talked about Walmart, Amazon, Costco, the big three that are just consuming a lot of oxygen in the room.”

For fiscal 2026, Walmart expects earnings in the range of $2.50 to $2.60, which includes a $0.05 headwind from currency effects. At the midpoint, this implies just 1.59% year-over-year growth, down sharply from the 13.1% increase in FY2025.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.