You’ve likely seen the ticker scrolling across your screen or noticed a headline about retail giants lately. It’s hard to miss. Honestly, if you’re asking what is walmart stock at, you aren’t just looking for a number—you’re trying to figure out if the world’s largest retailer is still a safe bet in an era of robot-delivered groceries and AI-powered shopping carts.
As of mid-January 2026, Walmart (WMT) is trading around $120.04.
It’s been a wild ride to get here. Just a couple of days ago, the stock hit a fresh 52-week high of $121.23. To put that in perspective, the stock has rallied more than 26% over the last six months. It’s outperforming the S&P 500 and leaving many of its retail peers in the dust. But why? Why is a company that started as a single five-and-dime in Arkansas suddenly acting like a high-flying tech stock?
Why the Current Walmart Stock Price is Turning Heads
The number $120 might feel low if you remember the stock trading near $170 a couple of years back. Don't worry, you aren't losing your mind. In early 2024, Walmart executed a 3-for-1 stock split. Basically, they tripled the number of shares and cut the price per share to keep things "accessible" for their associates.
Sam Walton always wanted his employees to be able to buy whole shares, not just fractions.
Right now, the market is obsessed with the company's "tech-heavy" makeover. They just announced a massive integration with Google’s Gemini AI to power instant checkouts. People aren't just buying milk and socks; they are buying into a data machine. Walmart Connect—their advertising arm—is growing at a clip of over 30%. That is high-margin revenue that makes the thin margins on a loaf of bread look like chump change.
The Nasdaq-100 Shift
Here is something most people missed: Walmart is officially joining the Nasdaq-100 index on January 20, 2026. They are replacing AstraZeneca.
Why does this matter for the price?
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When a stock joins a major index, every mutual fund and ETF that tracks that index has to go out and buy shares. It creates a massive wave of "forced" buying. This news alone helped push the price up 3% in a single session earlier this week. It’s a bit of a prestige move, moving from the "old school" image of the Dow to the tech-centric world of the Nasdaq.
Breaking Down the Valuation: Is it Overpriced?
Let's get real for a second. While the momentum is great, the valuation is getting a bit... spicy.
Walmart is currently trading at roughly 42 to 45 times forward earnings. For a grocery store, that’s astronomical. The S&P 500 average is closer to 22. Some analysts, like those at Raymond James, have pointed out that while they love the company, the stock technically sits above their "Fair Value" estimates.
- The Bull Case: E-commerce is up 27%. Membership income from Sam’s Club China is exploding. They are becoming a logistics and data company that happens to have storefronts.
- The Bear Case: Consumer spending is still "kinda" weird. People are buying essentials (groceries) but skipping the high-profit stuff like electronics and home decor. If the economy stumbles, that high price-to-earnings ratio could come crashing down.
Most Wall Street analysts are still screaming "Buy." Out of 28 major analysts tracked this month, nearly 96% have a Buy or Strong Buy rating. TD Cowen recently set a price target of $136, citing the AI initiatives as a total game-changer for the retail floor.
What Most People Get Wrong About WMT
People think Amazon is winning the delivery war. In reality, Walmart is using its 4,700+ U.S. stores as mini-warehouses. Roughly 35% of their store-fulfilled orders are now reaching customers in under three hours. You can't do that from a centralized warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
They are leveraging physical proximity in a way that’s finally starting to pay off on the balance sheet.
Also, keep an eye on the VIZIO acquisition. By owning the screens in people's living rooms, Walmart is building a closed-loop system where they see the ad, click the remote, and have the product at their door by lunchtime. It's a level of vertical integration that even Sam Walton probably didn't see coming.
Actionable Insights for Investors
If you are looking at the ticker and wondering what to do, here is the brass tacks:
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- Watch the Nasdaq-100 Effective Date: Expect some volatility around January 20. The "index effect" can cause a short-term spike followed by a "sell the news" dip.
- Check the Yield: The dividend yield is sitting around 0.78%. It’s not a massive income play, but it’s one of the safest dividends in the world. They’ve increased it for over 50 years straight.
- Mind the Entry Point: If you're a value investor, $120 might feel rich. Waiting for a pullback toward the $112 range—which was a support level back in December—might offer a better margin of safety.
- Monitor the Mix: Keep an eye on "General Merchandise" sales in the next earnings report. If that doesn't start to recover, the stock might struggle to stay above $120.
Walmart isn't just a place to buy cheap tires anymore. It's a tech-driven powerhouse that is currently priced for perfection. Whether it stays at these levels depends entirely on if that AI-powered convenience actually translates into fatter profit margins throughout the rest of 2026.