5 Best Defensive Stocks To Buy Now

In this article, we will take a look at the 5 best defensive stocks to buy now. To see more such companies, go directly to 13 Best Defensive Stocks To Buy Now.

5. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 91

You will hardly find any list of best defensive stocks to buy without mention of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), the biggest retailer in the US which remains a behemoth irrespective of the economic conditions.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2023, 91 hedge funds out of the 943 funds tracked by Insider Monkey reported owning stakes in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT). The most significant stakeholder of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during this period was D E Shaw with a $710 million stake in the company.

In July, it was reported that Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) paid about $1.4 billion to up its stake in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart.

Here is what Leaven Partners has to say about Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“In our last quarterly letter, I briefly mentioned that the consensus estimates for corporate profits appeared to be a bit too sanguine. I referenced a Reuters article that reported, as of June 17, Wall Street expected S&P 500 earnings to grow by 9.6% in 2022, which was up from 8.8% in April and from 8.4% in January. That tune began to change at the end of July and accelerated in August and September, as major players, such as Walmart (NYSE:WMT), has recently issued profit warnings and/or have withdrawn guidance. In response, Wall Street has altered its outlook: lowering third-quarter profit growth to 4.6%^[2] from 7.2% in early August and slashing full-year profit growth to 4.5%.”