Morgan Stanley analysts reiterated an Overweight rating and $160 price target on Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Monday, stating that the firm's latest survey points to 21.5 million Walmart+ members.
The number represents a new record and a more than 3M inflection vs. Morgan Stanley's prior survey.
"Walmart+ has ~21.5m members, a record high in our survey series," declared the analysts. "Per our latest AlphaWise Consumer Pulse Survey Wave 44 (conducted 6/16-6/19), Walmart+ has 21.4m members, or ~17% US household penetration. This is 3.2m members above our last survey estimate in May – marking one of the largest sequential increases in the history of our survey series – and 1.4m above our prior record high from Wave 42 (conducted 4/28-5/1). The positive inflection continues the broader trend of membership growth despite some brief blips."
"Membership TAM increased to ~27.4m from ~25m last month," they added. "The membership TAM was 27.4m, or 2.2m higher sequentially vs. our prior survey, but still ~2m lower than our record high of ~29.5m in late February."
The analysts also noted that the overlap with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime fell.
"Among actual subscribers of Walmart+ and respondents who are "very likely" to subscribe, 76%/72% are also members of Amazon Prime – a sequential decline vs. our prior survey (in which 80%/76% were Prime members, respectively) and the lowest levels of overlap we've observed this year," said the analysts.