3 Stocks to Watch in August: McDonald’s, Walmart, and Nvidia

McDonald’s reports on Wednesday. (Nicolas Guyonnet /Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

Big companies reporting earnings in August have stories to tell about consumer appetites for dining out, how tariffs are landing in retail, and fast-moving dynamics around artificial intelligence. Investors are watching for McDonald’s this week, followed by Walmart and Nvidia later in the month.

McDonald’s

When McDonald’s reports on Wednesday, analysts expect to see quarterly revenue tick up 3% year-over-year, according to FactSet.

That comes after the Golden Arches missed Wall Street estimates for revenue on its last quarterly call, as U.S. same-store sales fell 3.6%.

“The restaurant sales environment for 2025 so far has been soft,” says Guggenheim analyst Gregory Francfort.

There is a particular question about whether burger and sandwich quick-service brands—such as McDonald’s—have grown too pricey for consumers.

“Is quick-service losing share because it took too much price as a category? That’s probably the fundamental question,” he says.

In the meantime, McDonald’s has aimed new marketing and products at customers.

“McDonald’s is very likely outperforming the segment, albeit with more product news and promotions than they’d probably have in a given year,” Francfort says.

Guggenheim has a Neutral rating on the stock and in June lowered its price target from $310 to $305.

Walmart

Walmart stock has risen 9% since the start of year, beating the S&P 500’s 6% increase. When the megaretailer reports earnings Aug. 21, Wall Street will get an important look at U.S. consumers and the impact of tariffs.

“Investors are looking for any signs of a consumer deceleration in spending,” Mizuho analyst David Bellinger tells Barron’s.

Still, Walmart may be able to mitigate potential price increases better than most retailers, Bellinger notes. The company’s immense scale gives it lots of bargaining power with suppliers.

“It puts them in a good spot and they essentially don’t have to raise prices as much as others,” Bellinger says. Mizuho maintains an Outperform rating on the stock.

Nvidia

Nvidia’s highly-anticipated results are set to be announced Aug. 27. Just a few weeks ago, the chip maker became the first company ever to reach $4 trillion in market value. Its share price is up nearly 26% this year.

In fresh signs of demand for Nvidia’s products, Big Tech firms last week reported growing capital expenditures on AI infrastructure like data centers. Nvidia stock touched an intraday high above $183 following earnings reports from Microsoft and Meta on Thursday.

Needham has a $200 price target on the stock, and emphasizes data center trends in its Buy rating.

“Data center build-outs are robust as cloud services accelerate throughout the world,” analyst N. Quinn Bolton wrote in a July note. “We believe data center, the end-market that we view as NVDA’s biggest growth engine, is experiencing a recovery as hyperscaler sales have ramped the past few quarters and visibility has improved.”

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