Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Shares Up 0.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s stock price rose 0.2% during trading on Tuesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $69.00 to $71.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a hold rating on the stock. Walmart traded as high as $67.72 and last traded at $67.61. Approximately 2,046,895 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 17,880,943 shares. The stock had previously closed at $67.48.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on WMT. KeyCorp increased their price target on Walmart from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Walmart from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Walmart from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Walmart from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Walmart from $63.33 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other Walmart news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.03, for a total value of $1,748,313.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,018,650 shares in the company, valued at $241,239,559.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.03, for a total transaction of $1,748,313.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,018,650 shares in the company, valued at $241,239,559.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director S Robson Walton sold 3,540,250 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.55, for a total transaction of $228,523,137.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 648,504,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,860,933,910.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,525,340 shares of company stock worth $953,023,399 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Walmart

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 36,625,314 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 18,865,484 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Walmart by 1.8% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,087,268 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,852,277,000 after buying an additional 426,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Walmart in the fourth quarter valued at $3,674,652,000. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walmart Stock Up 0.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.53. The company has a market cap of $547.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.50.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The retailer reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $161.50 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.42 earnings per share 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.