The investigations became public in April. Investors seem to think that the bribery probe will not affect earnings in the near term, Abella said.
More Upside
Wal-Mart's price-to-earnings ratio reached a peak of 16.8 in 2008, said Colin McGranahan, an analyst with New York-based research firm Sanford Bernstein & Co. The stock trades at 16.2 times earnings now, implying there is a little more upside to the shares, McGranahan said in a telephone interview.
The share performance partly reflects Wal-Mart's efforts to reclaim its role as a one-stop shopping destination by adding merchandise, working to keep it in stock and lowering costs so it can offer deal-hungry customers lower prices.
Sales rose 8.5 percent in the first quarter to $113 billion. Net income rose 10 percent to $3.74 billion. U.S. same- store sales rose 2.6 percent.
Even so, some investors are waiting to see more improvement before buying the shares, said Brian Sozzi, an analyst with New York research firm Decoding Wall Street. Sozzi told clients to get out of the stock on July 30. He's waiting for the shares to drop before recommending investors start buying again, he said in a telephone interview.
"If we get a sell-off, that could be interesting," Sozzi said.