Shares in retail giant Walmart (WMT) edged lower today on reports that an investment group is seeking answers from it on how President Trump’s immigration crackdown has impacted its business.
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Walmart Finances and Supply Chain
According to a report on Reuters, SOC Investment Group has sent letters to Walmart, Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL), asking how the President’s immigration policies have hit their finances and supply chains.
On its website, SOC said it holds corporations and their leadership accountable for irresponsible and unethical corporate behavior and excessive executive pay, reflecting the long-term interests of workers and their families invested in union pension funds.
SOC Investment Group and the funds it works with own about 17 million shares of Walmart, 31 million shares of Amazon, and 41 million shares of Google-parent Alphabet, according to the firm. The three companies are some of the top recipients of H-1B visa petition approvals for skilled foreign professionals such as physicians, researchers, and nurses.
It wants the companies to show how they will navigate Trump’s $100,000 fee structure for new visa approvals. Before Trump raised the fee in September, the cost to file an H-1B visa petition typically ranged from $960 to $7,595.
“The availability of labor that’s skilled in the area … is really critical to the long-term performance of a company,” the group’s Executive Director Tejal Patel told Reuters. “If they’re not able to keep up with consumer demand or competition because they’re not able to hire the right people, it poses a threat to the company’s value over the long term.”
Impact on Trucking and Farming
SOC is also asking Amazon and Walmart to detail how Trump’s immigration policies, which have included raids on farms, are affecting the trucking and farming sectors needed to stock supermarket shelves.
Google and Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment for the article. Amazon declined to comment.
However, it is clear the changes are having some impact. Back in October, it emerged that Walmart has stopped hiring people who require H-1B visas. Walmart said it had paused job offers to candidates using H-1B visas. That’s because Walmart gave the green light to more than 2,000 H-1B visas in the first half of this year, more than any other retailer.
A Walmart spokesperson said at the time that it is “committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach.”
Earlier this month, it was revealed that 19 U.S. states, including California, New York, and Oregon, have sued the Trump administration for raising the H-1B visa fee.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the higher fee would threaten public sectors, such as healthcare and education, while harming the economy. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield added that the state’s education and research institutions rely on foreign workers to operate, with the higher fee creating a major challenge for employment.
Other entities have already sued the Trump administration in response to the hike, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several employee unions.
Is WMT a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, WMT has a Strong Buy consensus based on 25 Buy ratings. Its highest price target is $136. WMT stock’s consensus price target is $123.21, implying a 6.53% upside.
