Walmart, Target earnings put focus on new CEOs Furner, Fiddelke

When Walmart and Target report holiday earnings this quarter, investors may quickly brush off those results.

Instead, they will likely focus more on the two big-box retailers’ futures under new CEOs and the outlook for U.S. consumers in 2026.

Both companies had leadership changes this month: Walmart CEO John Furner and Target CEO Michael Fiddelke, both longtime company insiders, took on their roles on Feb. 1.

The rival retailers have contended with the same economic challenges. U.S. consumers are still spending, but buying selectively, as inflation and tariffs fuel higher prices for groceries and other essentials and cause some shoppers to think twice about discretionary purchases.

Yet while both Walmart and Target have new CEOs, their paths forward look distinctly different.

Walmart’s stock has shot up by about 163% over the past five years and has risen about 24% over the last year, as of Tuesday’s market close. It hit a 52-week high Tuesday. Shares of Target, on the other hand, have tumbled by about 40% over the past five years and dropped 10% over the past year.

The retailers’ stock market performances reflect their sharp divergence in sales results. Walmart is attracting shoppers across incomes and gaining momentum with online sales and higher-margin businesses like advertising. Target is struggling with slower sales and weaker store traffic. Walmart expects its full-year net sales to rise by 4.8% to 5.1%. Target, on the other hand, is on track for a full-year sales decline.

Walmart CEO John Furner inherited a business that’s “fundamentally sound” and “on a great trajectory,” said Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData.

“In many ways, his job is to keep the ship steady and see what he can do to add to the speed,” he said.

On the other hand, Target CEO Michael Fiddelke has to “sell the Target of the future” after four years of roughly flat annual sales, Saunders said.

“What I think he’ll want to do is to inject some excitement, to say, ‘Look, I’m really excited about this role. I’m really excited about where Target could go. We are going to change things. We’re going to become a different business. We’re going to get back to what we were before,'” he said.

Here’s a closer look at what we know so far about the CEOs’ plans and what investors will listen for during earnings:

The retail giant has had a busy few months: Along with the company getting a new CEO, its market cap surpassed $1 trillion in early February. In December, the company switched its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the tech-heavy Nasdaq, a nod to its aim to be perceived by investors more like its key rival Amazon, and it was added to the Nasdaq-100 index in January.

When longtime CEO Doug McMillon stepped down from the role, he said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he was passing the torch to Furner as the company accelerates its artificial intelligence adoption and reshapes its business and the way its customers shop.

Walmart has announced deals with two major AI chatbot platforms, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, to make it easier for shoppers to find and buy its products.

Furner, who like his predecessor moved up the ranks at Walmart during decades at the Arkansas-based company, oversaw the largest segment of the company in his previous role as CEO of Walmart U.S. Furner got picked in part because of his success expanding Walmart’s digital business, a pivotal piece of its future, said Kate McShane, a retail analyst for Goldman Sachs.

Walmart in May posted its first profitable quarter for its e-commerce business in the U.S. and globally, as its home deliveries, ads business and third-party marketplace all grow.

Corey Tarlowe, a retail analyst at Jefferies, said Walmart investors “want more of the same” — namely more e-commerce growth, grocery success and market share gains with a wider range of customers, including more affluent shoppers.

Yet Walmart’s results for the holiday quarter could mark an inflection point in the world of retail. Amazon could take the crown as the largest retailer by annual revenue for the first time, even though the company makes a lot of its money from tech services like…