Market Whales and Their Recent Bets on WMT Options

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bullish stance on Walmart WMT.

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with WMT, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 18 uncommon options trades for Walmart.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 50% bullish and 33%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 8 are puts, for a total amount of $537,083, and 10 are calls, for a total amount of $496,468.

Expected Price Movements

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $63.33 to $80.0 for Walmart over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Walmart options trades today is 4190.8 with a total volume of 6,486.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Walmart's big money trades within a strike price range of $63.33 to $80.0 over the last 30 days.

Walmart Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Significant Options Trades Detected:

About Walmart

Walmart serves as the preeminent retailer in the United States, with its strategy predicated on superior operating efficiency and offering the lowest priced goods to consumers to drive robust store traffic and product turnover. Walmart augmented its low-price business strategy by offering a convenient one-stop shopping destination with the opening of its first supercenter in 1988.Today, Walmart operates over 4,600 stores in the United States (5,200 including Sam's Club) and over 10,000 stores globally. Walmart generated over $440 billion in domestic namesake sales in fiscal 2024, with Sam's Club contributing another $86 billion to the firm's top line. Internationally, Walmart generated $115 billion in sales. The retailer serves around 240 million customers globally each week.

In light of the recent options history for Walmart, it's now appropriate to focus on the company itself. We aim to explore its current performance.

Current Position of Walmart

• Currently trading with a volume of 3,416,146, the WMT's price is up by 0.71%, now at $70.17.
• RSI readings suggest the stock is currently may be approaching overbought.
• Anticipated earnings release is in 37 days.

Expert Opinions on Walmart

Over the past month, 5 industry analysts have shared their insights on this stock, proposing an average target price of $75.8.

• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from Deutsche Bank keeps a Buy rating on Walmart with a target price of $77.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from HSBC keeps a Buy rating on Walmart with a target price of $81.
• Maintaining their stance, an analyst from Stifel continues to hold a Hold rating for Walmart, targeting a price of $71.
• An analyst from Evercore ISI Group persists with their Outperform rating on Walmart, maintaining a target price of $73.
• Maintaining their stance, an analyst from Jefferies continues to hold a Buy rating for Walmart, targeting a price of $77.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Walmart, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.