Walmart is having a moment. Honestly, it’s more like a year-long victory lap that hasn't slowed down since the ball dropped on New Year's. If you’re checking your ticker and wondering what is walmart trading at today, the short answer is roughly $119.20. It’s down about 0.70% from yesterday’s close of $120.04, but don’t let that tiny red sliver fool you.
The retail behemoth is currently hovering right near its 52-week high of $121.24.
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Think about that for a second. In an era where "traditional retail" was supposed to be a dinosaur, Walmart is basically the T-Rex that learned how to use a smartphone and fly a drone. It’s not just a grocery store anymore. It’s a tech company that happens to sell milk and TVs.
The Big Switch: Why the Nasdaq Move Matters
Something pretty wild happened this week. Walmart officially announced it's ditching the New York Stock Exchange for the Nasdaq. This isn't just a change of scenery. By moving to the Nasdaq, Walmart is basically shouting from the rooftops that it wants to be seen as a tech-forward innovator.
Starting January 20, 2026, Walmart (WMT) will officially join the Nasdaq-100 Index.
Why should you care? Because when a stock joins an index like the Nasdaq-100, a ton of institutional money—like ETFs and mutual funds that track the index—has to buy it. That’s why we saw that massive jump on January 12th, where the stock surged 3.0% in a single day. Investors are front-running the inclusion. They know the demand is coming.
Breaking Down the Numbers
Let's get into the weeds of the price action we've seen this week. It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but the trajectory is clearly upward.
- January 15: Closed at $119.20.
- January 14: Closed at $120.04.
- January 13: Closed at $120.36.
- January 12: Closed at $117.97.
The stock is currently trading at a Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of about 41.7. If you're a value investor, that number might make you choke on your coffee. Usually, retailers trade at much lower multiples. But the market isn't pricing Walmart like a retailer anymore. It's pricing it like a growth engine.
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Is it Overvalued?
Analysts are split. It's kind of a "choose your own adventure" situation. Some folks at InvestingPro think the stock is a bit rich right now. They look at that 41 P/E and see a bubble. On the other hand, the math-wizards over at Simply Wall St ran a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model and pegged the intrinsic value at $126.38.
If they're right, the current price is actually a 5% discount.
The AI Secret Sauce
You can’t talk about Walmart in 2026 without talking about AI. It’s everywhere. Just a few days ago, on January 11th, Walmart and Google announced a massive partnership to integrate Google Gemini into the shopping experience.
They’re calling their AI assistant "Sparky."
It’s not just a chatbot that tells you where the socks are. It's an agentic search tool. It learns your "shopping rhythm." If you usually buy diapers on Tuesday and milk on Friday, Sparky basically anticipates the need before you even realize you're low. RBC Capital recently bumped their price target to $126 specifically because of these AI initiatives. They see Walmart as a leader in "agentic search adoption," which is a fancy way of saying they think Walmart will win the war for your digital wallet.
Insider Moves: Should You Worry?
It's always interesting to see what the big bosses are doing with their own money. On January 14th, EVP Donna Morris sold about $1.13 million worth of stock. Another exec, Daniel Danker, sold roughly $524,000 the same day.
Does this mean the ship is sinking? Probably not.
Most of these sales were to cover tax obligations from stock grants. Morris still owns over 536,000 shares directly. When you have that much skin in the game, selling a million dollars' worth of stock is basically like a normal person finding a twenty in their winter coat. It’s a drop in the bucket.
What's Driving the Momentum?
Walmart is winning because it’s playing both sides of the fence perfectly. They have the physical stores—over 4,700 in the U.S. alone—and those stores are being turned into "Stores of the Future." They're remodeling 650 locations this year.
But the real growth is in E-commerce.
In the last quarter, e-commerce sales shot up 27%. Their advertising business? Up 53%. They are leveraging their massive foot traffic to sell digital ads, much like Amazon does. It’s a high-margin business that is fundamentally changing the company’s bottom line.
Actionable Insights for Investors
If you're looking at what is walmart trading at today and trying to decide your next move, consider these factors:
- The Nasdaq Influx: Watch for increased volatility and potential price support as the Nasdaq-100 inclusion goes live on January 20th.
- Dividend Reliability: Walmart is a Dividend King. They've raised their dividend for 53 consecutive years. If the market gets shaky, that yield (currently around 0.79%) provides a bit of a safety net.
- The Value-Seeker Trend: Deloitte’s 2026 outlook shows that even high-income households are "trading down" to value brands. Walmart is the primary beneficiary of this shift.
- Watch the $125 Level: Multiple analysts, including those from KeyBanc and Mizuho, have set price targets in the $125-$129 range. If the stock breaks past $122 with high volume, those targets become very realistic.
The retail landscape is messy, but Walmart seems to have found the broom. Between its AI push, the Nasdaq move, and its dominance in the grocery sector, the "Bentonville Behemoth" is proving that size doesn't have to mean slow. Whether it can maintain a 40+ P/E ratio is the billion-dollar question, but for now, the momentum is firmly with the bulls.
Keep an eye on the February 2026 earnings report. That will be the real test of whether the AI hype is translating into actual margin expansion or if it's just a very expensive coat of paint.