Walmart upgraded to Buy at Gordon Haskett as traffic inflects higher

As previously reported, Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom upgraded Walmart to Buy from Accumulate with a price target of $165, up from $155. When the firm has previously upgraded the stock in early February, it cited the expectation that traffic trends would begin to inflect higher, "which is now beginning to manifest," the analyst tells investors. Walmart’s foot traffic growth has improved sequentially in April by 1,120 basis points to 0.7% on a four-year basis, outperforming the firm’s coverage and broader retail, notes Gordon Haskett, which thinks the company is likely benefiting from increasing wallet share from core customers in a softening macro backdrop and gaining share with higher-income customers.