Walmart (WMT) stock was higher today on hopes that its Vizio-powered televisions will make more investors and customers switch on to the business.
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According to a memo seen by Bloomberg News by the end of this year, Walmart is planning to convert Vizio into a private label brand and sold exclusively in its stores, online and at Sam’s Club.
Media Empire
That means its smart TVs would not be sold on Amazon (AMZN) and Target (TGT).
Walmart bought Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System back in February 2024 for $2.3 billion. The memo states that by making Vizio’s hardware and advertising capabilities exclusive to Walmart retail channels will help the company fortify and differentiate its growing media empire from that of its competitors.
It also states that over 20 of its 90 private-label brands generate at least $1 billion in annual sales.
It is understood that Walmart is launching a new lineup of smart TVs under the in-house Onn brand, powered by Vizio, later this year for the holidays season. That should open up another valuable revenue stream for the group.
Holiday TV
The operating system on Walmart’s Onn smart TVs and Vizio TVs will reportedly be indistinguishable, with both offering access to popular apps like Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon’s Prime Video.
Walmart will stop licensing the Roku operating system for its Onn smart TVs and will shift to using SmartCast on an exclusive basis.
In an analyst note today, focused on Roku (ROKU) rather than Walmart, Daniel Kurnos of Benchmark said that one of its main challenges was the U.S. retail giant’s new TV range.
“The ongoing narrative around potential share loss to Walmart is going to be tough to dispel given how far out that event might be, never mind how long it will take Walmart to transition their ONN TVs,” he wrote.
However long the wait Walmart is already competing well with its traditional rivals.
Is WMT a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, WMT has a Strong Buy consensus based on 28 Buy ratings. Its highest price target is $120. WMT stock’s consensus price target is $111.33 implying a 15.84% upside.
