Walmart Earnings Preview: Q3 Has To Justify The High Valuation

Walmart maintains a Hold rating as valuation remains stretched with limited margin of safety despite platform business outperformance. Q2 benefited from a one-time $2.9B tariff refund, masking a core US comp sales slowdown to 2.6%, the weakest in over six years. Platform businesses—advertising, marketplace, and membership—are compounding at 3x–10x the core growth rate, justifying some premium but not current multiples.