Within the battle for the buyer, Walmart has emerged as a transparent winner with Wall Street analysts. The large-box retailer’s sales for the fiscal third quarter rose by nearly 9% and its earnings per share got here in at $1.50, compared with the $1.32 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Compared, Goal reported an earnings miss Wednesday, with profit that fell by about 50% in its fiscal third quarter. Goal shares are down about 12% in afternoon trading on the report. Differences between the 2 corporations’ business models may explain why their performance was so strikingly different. “Walmart’s positioning in retail is exclusive. It differentiated itself from competitors through its Supercenter format and its value offering across a mess of categories,” UBS analyst Michael Lasser wrote in a note Tuesday. “Further, it’s experienced tremendous growth in eCommerce, and has solidified its positioning as a viable #2 player to Amazon within the space.” Lasser raised his price goal to $170 from $158 on Walmart, implying 17% upside from Tuesday’s close. Consumers are gravitating towards value and trading down, buying cheaper versions of products, analysts noted, echoing Walmart’s comments on the earnings call. The retailer said its strength got here from its grocery business, which is larger than Goal’s, as consumers turned to Walmart to lower your expenses on food. About 75% of its market share gains in grocery got here from households with income of $100,000 or more a 12 months, Walmart said. That is a customer that is often more related to Goal’s business. “WMT continues to report market share gains in grocery, which was the strongest category within the quarter, including a return to unit growth,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Kate McShane. “General merchandise softness continues to be linked to Covid-winner categories (CE, home, and apparel basics), although the category’s performance also improved sequentially.” Walmart’s general merchandise sales fell at a low-single digit pace, its chief financial officer, John Rainey, said on the earnings conference call Tuesday. General merchandise is basically every little thing but grocery. “Results suggest the U.S. consumer is hanging in, but WMT can be benefiting from company specific trade down and these consumable traffic gains likely helped general merchandise,” said Wells Fargo analyst Edward Kelly. For Goal, the softness on the whole merchandise is taking its toll. Higher prices are keeping consumers away from products they could not necessarily need at once. That differentiation between grocery and other products can be reflected in the newest retail sales data, which rose 1.3% in October from September and eight.3% from the 12 months prior. Grocery stores saw an 8% year-over-year rise, while electronics and appliance sales fell 12%. Furniture sales were only up barely. At Goal, customer’s price sensitivity intensified throughout the last two weeks of October, its chief growth officer, Christina Hennington, said on a call with reporters. “It was a precipitous decline and, frankly, we have seen those trends within the early a part of November as well,” she said. The retailer has made some progress clearing through its excess inventory, however the fiscal third-quarter brought higher-than-expected markdowns, Goal said. Which means a success to profits. Inventory remains to be up 14% 12 months over 12 months. “Now the buyer is getting softer in lots of those discretionary categories, which goes to take more discounting to do away with that product and inventory within the fourth quarter,” Evercore ISI analyst Greg Melich said on CNBC’s ” Squawk on the Street .” Goal’s third-quarter miss and lowered guidance in some ways calls into query the takeaway from Walmart’s earnings, which was that the retail environment was solid heading into the vacation shopping season, said DA Davidson analyst Michael Baker. “A key query is that if TGT’s underperformance versus WMT is a function of TGT’s heavier emphasis on discretionary items, or if the difference is more on the execution side with one more guide down this 12 months for TGT,” he wrote in a note Wednesday. Walmart acknowledges the vacation season can be difficult. The retailer gave a more conservative outlook for the fourth quarter, anticipating comparable sales for the U.S. to rise about 3%, excluding fuel. That’s below Wall Street expectations of three.5% growth, in accordance with StreetAccount. Nevertheless, Walmart has also been resilient during economic downturns and periods of high inflation, Bank of America analyst Robert Ohmes identified in a note Wednesday. He raised his price goal on the stock to $165 from $155 per share. “WMT has meaningfully/most consistently outperformed S & P over [the] past 5 recessions,” he said. “WMT has outperformed in high inflation periods, & grocers (like KR) outperformed meaningfully within the highly inflationary 1980-82 period (w/WMT now the biggest grocer within the US, which was not the case in 1980).” — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.