8 Stocks You Can Count On During Any Crisis - 1 of 8

#1 - Walmart (NYSE:WMT)

Grocery stores are becoming the quintessential “essential” business during the coronavirus pandemic. But for a retailer like Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the coronavirus is confirming that the company took the right steps in heading off the existential threat posed by Amazon (AMZN).

In recent years, Walmart has made great strides in expanding its e-commerce business, including offering customers the opportunity for curbside and home delivery. And that may be the catalyst the company needs as Americans continue to shelter in place.

A recent survey by the retail intelligence company, Placer.ai, showed that traffic at Walmart, as well as Costco (COST) and Target (TGT) was down in the last week of March for the first time since the initial calls for Americans to begin social distancing. However, ambiguity about exactly how long Americans would need to remain sheltered in place is likely to keep store traffic at decent levels.

This seemed to be confirmed by the research which showed that the drop-off in-store traffic was more pronounced in a hard-hit area like New York. However, in lesser hit areas, the decline was not as pronounced.

And even if consumers opt to stay inside to keep up with more extreme social distancing, Walmart’s efforts in the e-commerce space should serve as a catalyst for WMT stock moving forward. After rising over 20% for the year, WMT shares were essentially flat as of this writing.   

About Walmart

Current Price

$90.44

Consensus Rating

Moderate Buy

Ratings Breakdown

29 Buy Ratings, 2 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.

Consensus Price Target

$91.88 (1.6% Upside)