Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Trading Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s stock price rose 0.5% during trading on Tuesday after Truist Financial upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a buy rating. Truist Financial now has a $89.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $76.00. Walmart traded as high as $80.86 and last traded at $80.71. Approximately 3,252,589 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 17,449,656 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.33.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on WMT. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Walmart from $81.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 target price (up previously from $81.00) on shares of Walmart in a research report on Friday, August 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Walmart from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Walmart from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $80.19.

Insider Transactions at Walmart

In related news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 359,616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.25, for a total transaction of $28,139,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 603,989,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,262,194,181.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 359,616 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.25, for a total value of $28,139,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 603,989,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,262,194,181.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Daniel J. Bartlett sold 2,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.76, for a total transaction of $166,607.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 459,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,113,904.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,369,039 shares of company stock valued at $959,826,083. Corporate insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Walmart by 199.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $24,774,717,000 after buying an additional 274,229,968 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Walmart by 181.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 56,861,234 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,421,342,000 after acquiring an additional 36,625,314 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 36,282,740 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,456,704,000 after purchasing an additional 644,353 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Walmart by 183.0% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,172,985 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,755,339,000 after purchasing an additional 18,865,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of Walmart by 16.0% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,282,129 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,102,463,000 after buying an additional 2,246,656 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walmart Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $73.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $67.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $649.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.51.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.02. Walmart had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The company had revenue of $169.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. Walmart’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Walmart

Walmart Inc engages in the operation of retail, wholesale, other units, and eCommerce worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. It operates supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash and carry stores, and discount stores under Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands; membership-only warehouse clubs; ecommerce websites, such as walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, PhonePe and other sites; and mobile commerce applications.