Wal-Mart Shares Up 1.6% Premarket As Goldman Upgrades To Buy And Adds To Conviction List

Goldman Sachs on Friday upgraded Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stock to buy and added it to its conviction list, saying the retailer is as well positioned as any mass market retailer to cope with the demands of e-commerce and technology spending, as Amazon.com Inc. continues to expand into grocery. "We see merits in WMT's front-loaded investment, scale, capacity for additional investment, small-market focus, and current impressive inventory discipline," analysts led by Matthew Fassler wrote in a note. Goldman listed 10 drivers for the action, including that Wal-Mart has the scale to undertake big investments in technology and e-commerce. The company also has excellent working capital management, food inflation has bottomed and its relative price/earnings ratio is below the multi-year mean. Goldman set a stock price target of $84, equal to 12% upside from current levels. Wal-Mart shares rose 1.6% premarket and have gained 9% in 2017, matching the gains of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 .