Target (TGT) shares climb higher Wednesday after reporting a third-quarter earnings beat while same-store sales see a drop of nearly 5% year-over-year. Walmart (WMT) is the next big-box retailer to report earnings, expected out on Thursday, November 16.

UBS US Hardline & Broadline and Food Retail Analyst Michael Lasser compares Walmart's outlook and revenue expansion to that of Apple (AAPL).

"As those revenue streams become a larger portion of its total, we think Walmart's multiple will trade at a premium to where it has historically," Lasser tells Yahoo Finance.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Before we let you go, of course, the big rival to Target, Walmart, reports tomorrow morning.

And in a recent note you made a really fascinating comparison between Walmart and Apple.

Can you just quickly lay that out for us?

MICHAEL LASSER: So when you look back at Apple in the mid 2000s it was just beginning on this journey where it was harvesting services.

Things like the app store and other things that it was selling to consumers.

As that became a larger portion of its total revenue, its multiple expanded.

We think there is a very compelling parallel to Walmart at this point.

It is early in its life cycle of harvesting high-margin revenue streams like selling advertisements to third party sellers on its marketplace, selling its data to a variety of vendors or logistics services.

As those revenue streams become a larger portion of its total, we think Walmart's multiple will trade at a premium to where it has historically.

And investors should look to that as a way to generate alpha from this stock moving forward.