Walmart’s stock rises into record territory, to outperform rivals by a wide margin

Shares of Walmart Inc.
WMT,
+0.39%
rose 0.7% in afternoon trading Thursday, to put them on track to close at a record high well ahead of the discount retail behemoth’s top rivals. The stock was trading 0.4% above the last record close of $165.25 seen on Sept. 14. Walmart is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results on Nov. 16; it has beaten adjusted earnings-per-share estimates the past five quarters, topped same-store sales expectations the past six quarters and surpassed total revenue forecasts the past 14 quarters, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, key rival Target Corp.’s stock
TGT,
+1.40%
tacked on 1.4% on Thursday. It has climbed 5.7% since closing at a 3 1/2-year low of $105.01 on Oct. 6, but was still 58.3% below the Nov. 16, 2021 record close of $111.04. Amazon.com Inc. shares
AMZN,
+0.78%
were up 0.4% on Thursday, but were still 26.1% below their July 8, 2021 record close of $186.57. And shares of membership-based warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp.
COST,
+0.03%,
which competes with Walmart’s Sam’s Club, hiked up 1.8% on Thursday but was 8.4% below the April 7, 2022 record close of $608.05. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLP,
+1.30%,
of which Walmart’s stock is a component, gained 1.4% on Thursday, but was 14.7% below its record close seen April 20, 2022, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+1.89%
rallied 1.8% but was 10.1% below the record close reached on Jan. 3, 2022.