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Russian (RU) Leo Sun, The Motley Fool
Sat, Apr 26, 2025, 5:05 AM 5 min read
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Walmart (NYSE: WMT), one of the largest retailers in the world, has been a reliable stock for long-term investors. Over the past 10 years, it has gained nearly 270% as the broad market S&P 500 index advanced by about 160%. Factoring in reinvested dividends, Walmart's total return was 340% against the S&P 500's total return of 205%. Here are seven reasons it's still worth buying with both hands today.
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Walmart's comparable-store sales metric, which gauges the year-over-year growth of stores that have been open for at least 12 months (plus its e-commerce sales), has consistently risen over the past decade. It achieved that sales growth by renovating its stores, rolling out more private label brands, matching Amazon's prices, expanding its e-commerce and digital capabilities, and leveraging its massive network of brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill online orders.
Its Sam's Club chain also grew at a healthy rate, keeping pace with rival Costco (NASDAQ: COST) in the membership-driven warehouse club market. Walmart's international growth slowed down in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 (which ended in January 2023) as it divested some of its weaker overseas businesses, but that streamlined segment flourished over the following two years.
| Walmart U.S. comps growth | 8.6% | 6.4% | 6.6% | 5.6% | 4.5% |
| Sam's Club U.S. comps growth | 11.8% | 9.8% | 10.5% | 4.8% | 5.9% |
| Walmart International sales growth | 1% | (16.8%) | 0% | 10.6% | 6.3% |
| Total revenue growth | 6.7% | 2.4% | 6.7% | 6% | 5.1% |
Data source: Walmart. Comps growth excludes fuel sales.
Walmart's growth over the past five years shows how resistant it was to inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and other disruptive macro headwinds. For its fiscal 2026 (now underway), it expects its net sales to grow by 3% to 4% on a constant-currency basis.
The total number of Walmart stores worldwide declined from 11,501 at the end of fiscal 2020 to 10,593 at the end of fiscal 2022. However, a large portion of that decline was caused by its overseas divestments.
It has been expanding its footprint steadily since then, and it ended fiscal 2025 with 10,711 physical locations. That stable pace of expansion should help it widen its moat and maintain its lead against its smaller retail competitors.
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