Little House Capital LLC Purchases 74,974 Shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Little House Capital LLC raised its position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 225.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 108,177 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 74,974 shares during the period. Walmart makes up 2.2% of Little House Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Little House Capital LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $6,509,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Walmart by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 137,214,807 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $21,944,764,000 after buying an additional 751,713 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Walmart by 1.8% in the third 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 during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Walmart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,674,652,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Walmart by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,235,920 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,190,194,000 after purchasing an additional 2,150,351 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Walmart by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,550,281 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,505,602,000 after purchasing an additional 435,253 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walmart Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMT opened at $68.07 on Wednesday. Walmart Inc. has a 1-year low of $49.85 and a 1-year high of $69.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $547.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.53.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The retailer reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $161.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WMT. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $63.33 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Walmart from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. StockNews.com lowered Walmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Walmart from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $81.00 in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Walmart from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.47.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.39, for a total transaction of $1,991,790.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,960,402 shares in the company, valued at $270,851,892.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.39, for a total transaction of $1,991,790.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,960,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $270,851,892.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing 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 stock was sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total transaction of $73,610,637.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 647,371,888 shares in the company, valued at $42,092,120,157.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,525,340 shares of company stock valued at $953,023,399 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

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.