Walmart Stock Drops as CEO Doug McMillon Announces Retirement. It’s the End of an Era.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is retiring. The stock is dropping. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

Key Points

• Walmart stock fell 0.9% after CEO Doug McMillon announced his retirement, with John Furner succeeding him on Feb. 1.
• Doug McMillon led Walmart to a 310% stock gain since February 2014, surpassing the S&P 500’s 262% gain.
• John Furner, CEO of Walmart U.S. since 2019, will lead the company into AI-powered shopping and agentic commerce.

Walmart stock dipped Friday after the world’s largest retailer unexpectedly announced that longtime CEO Doug McMillon will retire next year. The transition marks the end of an important growth chapter for Walmart, and ushers in a new, artificial-intelligence-driven era for the retailer.

John Furner, 51, currently serving as CEO of Walmart U.S., will succeed McMillon, 59, effective Feb. 1, Walmart said.

McMillon will officially retire Jan. 31, but will remain on Walmart’s board of directors until the company’s next annual shareholder meeting to ensure a smooth transition, the company said.

Furner joined Walmart in 1993, and since then has held leadership roles across merchandising, operations, and sourcing, Walmart said. He has led Walmart’s largest division since 2019, overseeing more than 4,600 stores.

“John’s six-year leadership of our Walmart U.S. business during a time of rapid change, marked by digital acceleration and strong associate engagement, has positioned us for continued success,” said Greg Penner, chairman of Walmart’s board, in a statement.

Walmart stock was down 0.9% in midday trading Friday. The decline isn’t necessarily a rebuke to Furner, who by all accounts is well regarded by Wall Street.

Rather, it reflects investors’ disappointment at losing McMillon, who, in the span of a decade, orchestrated Walmart’s pivot from an industry laggard to a leader in both physical retail and e-commerce. Walmart’s ongoing commitment to everyday low pricing, combined with recent initiatives such as its Walmart+ membership and advertising business, have helped the company attract customers from all ends of the income spectrum, driving both top- and bottom-line growth.

Since McMillon took over as CEO in February 2014, Walmart stock has gained over 310%, outstripping the S&P 500 ’s 262% gain. From the fiscal year ended in January 2014 to the one ended in 2025, Walmart’s revenue rose 43%, and adjusted earnings per share improved by almost 50%.

“Given that Mr. McMillon was unequivocally Walmart’s best CEO since the company’s founder in Sam Walton…the announcement will likely cause some anxiety by shareholders…particularly since the change was a bit earlier than anticipated,” wrote Chuck Grom, an analyst at Gordon Haskett.

But McMillon’s path to making Walmart the retail behemoth it is today wasn’t straightforward. Wall Street was initially skeptical about the company’s hefty investments in supply chain, store remodels, technology, and employee pay in the mid-2010s. At the beginning of 2016, two years into his tenure, only 17% of analysts covering the shares had a Buy rating.

Walmart’s recent success has since proven that McMillon’s efforts were both necessary and worthwhile. Today, 95% of analysts covering the stock rate Walmart stock a Buy. Indeed, the CEO transition has yet to change many analysts’ perspective on the shares.

Gordon Haskett’s Grom notes that Furner and McMillon are “cut out of the same cloth.” Oppenheimer’s Rupesh Parikh agrees.

“We will miss spending time with Mr. McMillon, but at the same time are very confident in Mr. Furner’s leadership,” he wrote in a research note Friday. “We have spent a meaningful amount of time with Mr. Furner over the years including at our 2024 consumer conference and expect a seamless transition.”

Both Parikh and Grom remain bullish on Walmart stock, and Parikh advised investors to take advantage in the modest dip Friday.

That said, the end of the McMillon era will eventually bring about changes to Walmart’s operating structure. It will fall to Furner to lay the groundwork for the next big shift in consumer spending patterns—AI-powered shopping, or so-called “agentic commerce.”

“The CEO transition signals that Walmart is closing out its chapter associated with building a well-rounded digital foundation, and is now moving into the escalation and acceleration of AI’s transformation upon the business—something that will not be a one-year phenomenon, but a decadelong transformation,” wrote David Bellinger, an analyst at Mizuho Securities.

Write to Sabrina Escobar at sabrina.escobar@barrons.com