Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Trading Up 0.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) were up 0.3% during trading on Thursday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $72.00 to $73.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Walmart traded as high as $68.13 and last traded at $67.78. Approximately 2,898,070 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 18,017,945 shares. The stock had previously closed at $67.60.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on WMT. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Walmart from $63.33 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Walmart from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Walmart from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Walmart from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Walmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walmart has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.97.

Insider Activity at Walmart

In related news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.26, for a total transaction of $180,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 524,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,613,179.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.26, for a total value of $180,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 524,613 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,613,179.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 1,132,123 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total transaction of $73,610,637.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 647,371,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,092,120,157.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,493,971 shares of company stock worth $950,549,592 in the last 90 days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Walmart

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Walmart by 199.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $24,774,717,000 after purchasing an additional 274,229,968 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Walmart by 181.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 56,861,234 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,421,342,000 after acquiring an additional 36,625,314 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Walmart by 183.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,172,985 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,755,339,000 after acquiring an additional 18,865,484 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Walmart by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,087,268 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,852,277,000 after acquiring an additional 426,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,674,652,000. Institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Walmart Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $546.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $63.23 and its 200 day moving average is $58.70.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 16th. The retailer reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $161.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $159.57 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.88% and a return on equity of 21.57%. Walmart’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Walmart Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current year.

Walmart Company Profile

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.