Walmart’s Stock Could Be Tanked By Trump Tariffs

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 18, 10:17AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Walmart’s Stock Could Be Tanked By Trump Tariffs — © Walmart (CC BY 2.0) by Mike Mozart

There is a rumor that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) planned to show the effect of tariffs on the prices of items sold at its site. The e-commerce company wanted buyers to know it had a reason to charge more money, and these increases were outside its power. US government tariffs were at fault. The rumor continues that President Trump did not wish Amazon to show that his tariffs hurt consumers. Trump phoned founder Jeff Bezos and told him to eliminate the tariff data, which the White House “hostile.”. Amazon was on its own if buyers complained.

Trump hit Walmart (NYSE” WMT) for saying the price of items sold at its stores would rise because of tariffs on Chinese goods. Over two-thirds of Walmart’s merchandise is sourced in China. Trump went public with his admonition. On social media site Truth Social he posted, “EAT THE TARIFFS” ,”I’ll be watching, and so will your customers.” Trump said Walmart made “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”

In reality, Walmart operates on the thinnest of margins. In the most recently reported quarter, it had an operating income of $7.1 billion and revenue of $168 billion, which puts its margin at slightly over 4%. China tariffs could drive that margin down.

Investors expect operating income and revenue to continue to grow, and that was certainly true in the most recently reported quarter. Revenue was up 4% and operating income up 3%. America’s largest retailer said the future was bright. “Looking ahead, the Company issues guidance for the second quarter with net sales expected to increase 3.5% to 4.5% in constant
currency (“cc”).1 The Company’s outlook for fiscal year 2026 remains unchanged from prior guidance.” Tariffs could blow those numbers apart.

Walmart’s stock has had an extraordinary run. It is up 52% in the last year, while the S&P 500 is only. That year slowed year to date. Walmart’s stock price is up 9% during that period, while S&P is flat.

Many investors are trading Walmart on the supposition that its guidance is accurate. Tariffs may undermine that assumption. If prices rise across many items, consumers may cut back on their purchases, erode Walmart’s revenue, and, instead of growing, Walmart’s top line could shrink, as would its stock price.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.