Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Trading Up 0.8% Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) rose 0.8% during trading on Wednesday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $96.00 to $100.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Walmart traded as high as $95.39 and last traded at $95.34. Approximately 2,438,394 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 16,856,713 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.55.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Walmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Melius Research started coverage on shares of Walmart in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walmart presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Walmart news, EVP Daniel J. Bartlett sold 2,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.76, for a total transaction of $166,607.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 459,558 shares in the company, valued at $37,113,904.08. The trade was a 0.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 359,616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.25, for a total transaction of $28,139,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 603,989,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,262,194,181.50. This trade represents a 0.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,309,091 shares of company stock valued at $183,375,539. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMT. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Walmart in the third quarter valued at $26,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Walmart by 138.3% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 429 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Cultivar Capital Inc. bought a new position in Walmart during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in Walmart by 77.3% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 399 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Walmart during the third quarter worth $33,000. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Walmart Stock Up 0.5 %

The company has a market capitalization of $763.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.20, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.54. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $169.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.69 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 21.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.51 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.