Walmart is heading into its quarterly report on Thursday with its shares up 17.8% this year, a run that has topped the S&P 500, Amazon and most of the Magnificent 7 group. Zacks.com put the retailer on a list of companies it expects could deliver earnings surprises this week, alongside Amazon and Home Depot.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is expected to report earnings of $0.65 a share on revenue of $174.07 billion, according to the figures in the preview. That would mark year-over-year growth of 6.6% in profit and 5.1% in sales. Investors will also be watching U.S. same-store sales excluding fuel, which are expected to rise 3.86% after increasing 4.6% in the previous quarter and 4.5% a year earlier.
Walmart's strength this year has come even as households and retailers continue to grapple with elevated fuel costs, which pressure consumers and add to operating expenses. The company has still managed to separate itself from much of the retail sector because of its value pricing, its heavier exposure to groceries and its stronger digital tools. Those traits have also helped it gain share among higher-income households in recent years, a shift that has broadened its appeal beyond its traditional customer base.
The company’s business mix gives it a defensive profile that many other retailers do not have. Groceries and other essential items tend to hold up better when shoppers are stretched, and Walmart has also been building around e-commerce, third-party fulfillment and advertising, all areas that are expected to support the latest quarter. That combination helps explain why the stock has kept advancing while the broader market has posted a more modest 10.4% gain year to date and Home Depot has fallen 13.5%.
The question for Thursday is not whether Walmart has momentum. It does. The question is whether the company can keep turning that momentum into results strong enough to justify a stock that has already outperformed Amazon, the S&P 500 and much of large-cap retail so far in 2026.
