GoalVest Advisory LLC Acquires 17,078 Shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

GoalVest Advisory LLC grew its position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 214.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,025 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,078 shares during the quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $1,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WMT. Morningstar Investment Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Walmart by 55.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 3,238 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,155 shares during the last quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank acquired a new position in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter valued at $324,000. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Walmart by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 42,101 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,733,000 after acquiring an additional 1,317 shares during the period. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC lifted its position in shares of Walmart by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC now owns 12,360 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,977,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Management Associates NY lifted its position in shares of Walmart by 37.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Management Associates NY now owns 7,400 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walmart news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.08, for a total transaction of $177,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 521,613 shares in the company, valued at $30,816,896.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Walmart news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.08, for a total transaction of $177,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 521,613 shares in the company, valued at $30,816,896.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 1,132,123 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total transaction of $73,610,637.46. Following the transaction, 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 14,451,722 shares of company stock worth $947,990,915 over the last quarter. 45.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on WMT shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walmart has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.97.

Walmart Price Performance

WMT opened at $68.30 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $549.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $63.56 and a 200 day moving average of $59.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.80. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $69.04.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The retailer reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.42 EPS 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.