Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Trading Up 0.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) shares traded up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $94.00 to $96.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Walmart traded as high as $93.74 and last traded at $93.70. 3,723,721 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 16,826,482 shares. The stock had previously closed at $93.51.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on WMT. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Walmart from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Walmart presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.11.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP David Chojnowski sold 5,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.45, for a total value of $512,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 87,404 shares in the company, valued at $7,993,095.80. This trade represents a 6.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,375,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.96, for a total value of $182,823,328.48. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 619,646,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,687,998,026.24. This trade represents a 0.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 9,673,023 shares of company stock worth $753,365,984. 45.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Walmart

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WMT. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Walmart by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 87,617,409 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $7,048,465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,061 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Walmart by 12.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,135,639 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,098,203,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200,004 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Walmart by 4.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 47,659,844 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,848,533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,107,197 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Walmart by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,501,782 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,392,658,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Walmart by 1.8% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 36,282,740 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,456,704,000 after acquiring an additional 644,353 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walmart Stock Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $83.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $753.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.45, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $169.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $167.69 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.78% and a net margin of 2.92%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.47 earnings per share for the current 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.