Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Stock Price Up 0.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) shares shot up 0.4% on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $88.00 to $90.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Walmart traded as high as $82.04 and last traded at $81.68. 2,264,044 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 16,805,451 shares. The stock had previously closed at $81.39.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on WMT. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Walmart from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Walmart to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.64, for a total value of $2,348,559.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,873,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $312,322,993.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.64, for a total value of $2,348,559.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,873,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $312,322,993.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.48, for a total transaction of $232,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 384,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,765,104.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,334,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,577,287. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Walmart

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Walmart by 77.3% in the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 399 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Walmart in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Walmart during the first quarter worth about $25,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC raised its position in Walmart by 138.3% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 429 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cultivar Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Walmart during the second quarter worth about $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Walmart Trading Up 0.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $660.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.73, a PEG ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $79.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.09.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $169.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 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.