Warren Buffet Has This Warning About Walmart

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has a warning about retail giant Walmart. The billionaire investor has said that there are better stocks than retailers.

Buffet was a major shareholder of Walmart’s stock up until 2016. It was during this time that he remarked on Amazon being a threat, making retail stocks a “tough” game.

Buffet’s stake was around $3 billion when he sold it in 2016 and had remarked on the pressures that e-commerce had created in the retail arena.

Despite his selling off, Walmart shares have performed well. He sold the stock when it was near $70 and the stock is now close to $100. Walmart also recently saw 10% in gains after posting earnings last week.

Despite selling and his warning about e-commerce in the retail scape, the successful investor still had good things to say about the company. “Walmart is a fabulous company and what Sam Walton and his successors did is one of the great stories of American business,” Buffett said to CNBC in 2016.

“Retailing is too tough for me,” he said in the 2016 interview after Berkshire Hathaway sold the majority of its Walmart stake. “I’ve been in various things in retailing…and got my head handed to me.”

He said, “The online thing is very hard to figure out. … I just decided I would look for a little easier game.”

“Just as Walmart was once totally underestimated by the seers of its time, the idea some guy in Bentonville, Arkansas, would would take them to cleaners, that was the situation at first with traditional retailers, and Amazon. You want to be underestimated at first.” Warren Buffett also one said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and have not been compensated for this article.