Walmart stock climbs on AI shopping tool expansion

Walmart Inc. stock rose 2.8% in morning trading today, recovering most of Tuesday's losses as investors returned to the retailer ahead of its November 19 fiscal third-quarter earnings report.

The stock had fallen sharply on Tuesday after a bearish research note reiterated a Strong Sell rating and questioned whether the company's roughly 46x price-to-earnings ratio was justified given single-digit revenue growth.

Today's gains were supported by investor interest in Walmart's expanded Sparky AI shopping agent, which recently added six new holiday-season features. The tool can now convert photos of handwritten gift lists into shopping carts, recommend products from images of stains or damaged items, and suggest gifts based on personal interests and budget. Delivery is available in as little as 30 minutes.

Analysts have observed that customer baskets using Sparky tend to be larger than standard orders, supporting the view that higher-margin digital, advertising, and membership revenue streams are growing faster than core retail operations.

Evercore ISI maintained its Outperform rating on WMT and raised its price target to $130 in late October. Net ETF buying of $152.6 million was recorded earlier this week.

You May Also Be Interested In

• Netflix gains after Ackman endorsement and AI feature launch
• Strategy Inc. stock jumps on Bitcoin purchase and buyback
• Qualcomm stock climbs after SpaceX 5G network deal