Walmart Inc (WMT)

Consumer staple names have fallen off, with trades into cyclicals. Tough to own given the valuation relative to what the growth rates are. You're paying 24x PE for 5-6% growth rate, a bit pricey. Prefers Costco in this space; not cheap, but growth rate is better. COST is doing things well in the e-commerce space.

They report Thursday. Can they go head to head against Amazon. He wants to hear about their initiatives and benchmarks to show they are still hungry under their new CEO. He's been adding to his holdings because it's pulled back hard.

He holds Costco instead, as it brings in 3x as much in sales. WMT is a good name, but has lower growth prospects. Trying to enhance their digital experience, and he can't predict results just yet. 26x earnings, 6% earnings growth. Not cheap, but not expensive.

E-commerce will continue to be a trend this year with Covid; it's here to stay. This will be the year of Walmart and Costco, both of which were crushed today, but that means a buying opportunity.

He owns little retail now. It's done well in 2020, but is a little pricey given their PE, but he's stick with it. They're online presence suggests they could go head-to-head with Amazon. They continue to grow and reinvent themselves for the changing consumer, when old models don't work. A great stock.

WMT-N vs. COST-Q. Both names are core consumer staples companies. WMT-N has done a good job of transitioning to e-commence. COST-Q have this membership fee and every time they raise it, it all falls to the bottom line. She would prefer WMT-N because the multiple is lower, but would buy either one of them.

WMT vs. COST vs. AMZN Costco has a good management team, good long-term grower, make strategic, smart decisions. Walmart just jumps around too much. They should stick to their knitting, but instead management is always trying to play catch up in different arenas. But, quite frankly, the one to own in this space is Amazon.

Recent retail sales data in the US shows that about 40% is concentrated in the 4 names of Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, and Target. Going forward, this is a play on the US GDP. If you believe the economy will chug along at a decent rate, this is the one to buy. If not, then look at one of the niche e-retailers.