Buffet sold his stake in Walmart, what does that mean ?

Warren Buffett has never struck me as someone who would do something drastic without very careful consideration. That's why the billionaire investor's recent actions on Walmart could be quite telling.
Berkshire Hathaway's head cheese sold off his entire $900 million stake in Walmart, according to a 13F filing last week. The sale left Buffett with no exposure to the dividend-paying world's largest retailer. Just think about this: Buffett decided to take that money from Walmart and allocate it toward several new positions in airlines, an industry he once detested.

First is that 2017 could prove to be a challenging year for Walmart. Although Buffett is by no means a short-term trader, the reality is that Walmart's stock could come under pressure this year from a number of factors. For instance, gas prices and food inflation have picked back up, which may zap consumer spending.

Beyond the short-term considerations, Buffett perhaps sees the writing on the wall in the battle between Walmart and Amazon. In effect, Walmart has just opened a can of worms.

Walmart announced a new, free two-day home shipping service on Jan. 31. What makes it significant is there is no membership fee. Just last May Walmart began testing a two-day shipping subscription service called ShippingPass that mirrored Amazon's successful Prime service. Members to ShippingPass received free, two-day shipping for $49 a year compared to $99 for the similar service at Amazon Prime.

Walmart also lowered the minimum purchase required for free shipping to home to $35 from $50. While
these are great initiatives (and needed), they could also trigger margin compression for the company during a time of rising labor inflation (hourly wages, benefits, etc.).

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