Walmart Stock (WMT): eCommerce, a 45x P/E and Earnings-Day Swings

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-11-07

Walmart stock trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker WMT. The company took in $713.16 billion of revenue in its last fiscal year and kept about 4 cents of operating profit from each dollar of it. What has changed is the price investors pay for those cents. The shares now cost around 45 times earnings, about three times the 15.2x median of fiscal 2010 to 2020.

Quote pages show that 45x. They do not show what sits behind it. We went through Walmart’s own filings for three things: how much of its selling has moved online, what the stock used to cost against its profit, and how it reacts on results mornings.

WMT at a glance: up 150.66% in five years

The price is the November 6, 2026 close. Earnings, revenue and equity come from the 10-Q for the quarter to July 31, 2026, filed August 28, and the 10-K for the year to January 31, 2026. Walmart’s fiscal year ends on January 31, so the year to January 2026 is fiscal 2026 and the July 2026 quarter is the second quarter of fiscal 2027.

The price rose 12.66% in 2026 to November 6, against 7.76% for the S&P 500, and 150.66% over five years, against 57.04%. Its record close was $134.20 on May 19, 2026; at the 7,958,079,155 shares on the next 10-Q cover that was a market value of about $1.07 trillion. The November 6 close sat 6.47% below that record. The lowest close of the past year was $100.61 on November 19, 2025.

How it works: Walmart U.S., International and Sam’s Club

Walmart reports three segments. The 10-K for fiscal 2026 gives each one’s revenue, operating income and eCommerce sales, which lets you see where the money is made and where the online shift is furthest along.

Walmart U.S. earned $25.16 billion of the $32.70 billion of segment operating income, or 76.9%. Corporate costs that sit outside the segments bring the company total down to $29.83 billion.

Advertising: 0.9% of Walmart’s revenue, up 46%

Advertising is small in sales and fast in growth. Walmart’s fourth-quarter release said its global advertising business “grew 46% to nearly $6.4 billion” in fiscal 2026, counting the VIZIO TV business it bought in December 2024. That is 0.9% of revenue by our arithmetic. Walmart does not disclose what advertising earns, and it books some of it as a cut to cost of sales rather than as revenue. In the July 2026 quarter the release put global advertising up 38% and membership fee revenue up 17%.

Nasdaq, John Furner, the 2024 split and the 53rd raise

Four dated changes a quote page will not explain:

• Nasdaq listing. Walmart moved its shares from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq Global Select Market on December 9, 2025, keeping the ticker WMT.
• New chief executive. John Furner, who ran Walmart U.S. from 2019, succeeded Doug McMillon on February 1, 2026.
• The 2024 split. A 3-for-1 split took effect on February 26, 2024. The last close before it was $175.56, or $58.52 in today’s split-adjusted terms. Our stock split page covers why companies split.
• Fiscal 2027 dividend. Walmart raised it by 5% to $0.99 a share, paid as four installments of $0.2475, and called it the 53rd consecutive yearly increase. That is more than twice the 25 years the dividend aristocrats rule asks for.

The original data: Walmart’s eCommerce share and P/E history

eCommerce as a share of net sales, fiscal 2019-2026. Walmart’s revenue note gives eCommerce net sales for each segment. We took the latest figure filed for each year and divided the total by consolidated net sales, which leave out membership fees and other income.

• Fiscal 2019: $25.1 billion, 4.9% of $510.3 billion of net sales.
• Fiscal 2021, the first full pandemic year: $64.9 billion, 11.7%.
• The years between: 7.6% in fiscal 2020, then 12.9%, 13.6%, 15.6% and 17.9% from fiscal 2022 to 2025.
• Fiscal 2026: $150.4 billion, 21.3% of $706.4 billion, up 24.4% while net sales grew 4.7%.
• Across the seven years eCommerce grew 29.1% a year, compounded. It supplied 63.9% of the growth in net sales; the rest of Walmart’s selling grew 14.6%, from $485.2 billion to $556.0 billion.
• The latest quarter: $44.0 billion in the three months to July 31, 2026, up 23.2%, and 23.6% of net sales against 20.3% a year earlier. Sam’s Club grew fastest online, by 27.0%.

International’s figures include Flipkart in India, in which Walmart took a majority stake in 2018. The segment has also changed shape as Walmart sold businesses abroad, so its line is not like for like.

P/E at each fiscal year end, 2010-2026. For each fiscal year we divided the last close on or before January 31 by that year’s diluted earnings per share. EPS filed only before the 2024 split was divided by three, so it matches split-adjusted prices.

• Fiscal 2010 to 2017: between 12.5x (fiscal 2011) and 16.8x. The median from 2010 to 2020 was 15.2x.
• Fiscal 2018 and 2019: 32.5x and 42.4x. Those were the two lowest EPS years in the series (split-adjusted $1.09 and $0.75). In fiscal 2018 the price rose 59.7% while EPS fell 25.1%; in fiscal 2019 the price fell 10.1% and EPS fell another 31.1%, so that second spike came from weak earnings alone.
• Fiscal 2022 to 2026: 28.8x, 33.8x, 28.8x, 40.7x and 43.6x, as the price rose faster than profit.
• Now: 45.5x. A year earlier, at the November 6, 2025 close of $101.68, trailing EPS was $2.65 and the P/E 38.4x. Since then EPS is up 4.2% and the price 23.4%.

Our P/E ratio page explains why one number like this can mislead.

Download the data: eCommerce sales, P/E history and earnings-day moves. They are free to reuse under our site license if you cite whitmantrading.com.

A worked example: a P/E of 45 on a 3% margin

Every input below is in the 10-Q filed August 28, 2026 or the fiscal 2026 10-K, except the price.

1. Trailing earnings. Diluted EPS was $1.46 for the six months to July 2026, $2.73 for fiscal 2026 and $1.43 for the six months to July 2025. Last four quarters = $1.46 + $2.73 − $1.43 = $2.76.
2. P/E. $125.52 ÷ $2.76 = 45.5.
3. Market value. $125.52 × 7,933,746,241 shares = $995.84 billion. Our market cap page covers the measure.
4. Price-to-sales. Revenue of $365.69 billion + $713.16 billion − $343.01 billion = $735.84 billion over four quarters, and $995.84 billion ÷ $735.84 billion = 1.35.
5. Price-to-book. $995.84 billion ÷ $98.24 billion of Walmart shareholders’ equity = 10.14, or a book value of $12.38 a share. How that ratio is read is on our price-to-book page.
6. Yield. $0.99 ÷ $125.52 = 0.79%. The dividend yield page has the arithmetic.

Net income over the same four quarters was $22.08 billion, a 3.0% net margin. A P/E of 45 on a 3% margin is the core of the debate about the stock: the multiple prices in growth that the profit line has to deliver.

Earnings days: Walmart’s before-the-open releases since 2004

Walmart publishes results before the market opens, so the move we measure runs from the previous close to the close on release day. We used the 8-K Item 2.02 filings from November 16, 2004 onward, 88 in all, and left out three that were not quarterly results releases (November 4, 2004; February 8, 2007; February 8, 2008).

• Median move: 2.58%, against 0.63% on the other 5,441 trading days, about 4.1 times as large.
• Big days: 18 of the 88 moved 5% or more (20.5%), against 0.44% of other days; three moved 10% or more.
• Direction: 43 rose (48.9%), against a 52.1% up-rate on other days, a gap well within chance (two-sided binomial p = 0.59).
• Largest: +10.90% on November 16, 2017 and −11.38% on May 17, 2022.
• Lately: the 23 releases since 2021 had a median move of 4.49%, and 11 rose. Six of the last eight fell. On August 20, 2026 the stock fell 9.15% on a release that raised the full-year outlook.

Yahoo lists the next report for November 19, 2026, after which every figure in this section moves.

When it fails: 12.5 years to a new Walmart record

A steady company can still be a slow stock. From a close of $23.15 on December 27, 1999 the shares fell 39.1% to $14.09 on September 10, 2007, and did not set a new record until June 29, 2012, 12.5 years after the peak. From January 8, 2015 to November 13, 2015 they fell 37.6%.

Retail shocks hit it too. It fell 26.0% from April 21 to June 17, 2022, a stretch that included the 11.38% results-day drop, and regained the high by July 28, 2023. In the 1987 crash it lost 50.6% from August 21 to December 3. Our drawdown page explains the measure.

It lags in strong markets. WMT rose 0.4% in 2021 against 26.9% for the S&P 500, and 11.2% in 2023 against 24.2%. It held up in 2022 (−2.0% against −19.4%) and beat the index by a wide margin in 2024 (71.9% against 23.3%).

A high multiple leaves less room for a miss. At 45x trailing earnings, good news is not always enough: the August 2026 release raised the outlook and the stock still fell 9.15%. These are snapshots that change with every price and filing; none of it says where the stock goes next.

Questions people ask

What is Walmart’s market cap?

$995.84 billion at the November 6, 2026 close of $125.52, on the 7,933,746,241 shares on its latest 10-Q cover, dated August 26, 2026.

Is Walmart on the Nasdaq or the NYSE?

The Nasdaq. Walmart moved its listing from the NYSE on December 9, 2025 and kept the ticker WMT.

How much dividend does Walmart pay?

$0.99 a share for fiscal 2027, in four payments of $0.2475, up from $0.94. Walmart counts it as its 53rd yearly increase in a row. Our dividend growth page looks at how such records compare.

When did Walmart split its stock?

It split 3-for-1 effective February 26, 2024, its first split since 1999.

How does Walmart compare with Target?

Our Target stock page measures TGT the same way, including its 68.6% fall from 2021 to 2025, against Walmart’s 26.0% in 2022.

Related

For the ratios used here, see earnings per share, stock buybacks (Walmart bought back $5.10 billion of stock in the six months to July 2026) and beta. If you hold Walmart inside a fund, sector funds explains what that weighting means.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.