Insider Selling: Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) EVP Sells 38,000 Shares of Stock

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) EVP John D. Rainey sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.80, for a total value of $3,754,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 257,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,419,362.80. This represents a 12.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Walmart Price Performance

Shares of Walmart stock traded up $1.70 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $102.47. 15,902,185 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,366,958. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $93.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.69. The company has a market cap of $823.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.85. Walmart Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.85 and a 1-year high of $102.58.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $169.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Walmart Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Walmart by 3.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 87,617,409 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $7,048,465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,061 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Walmart by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,135,639 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,098,203,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200,004 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Walmart by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 48,793,045 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $4,408,452,000 after buying an additional 1,133,201 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Walmart by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,501,782 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,392,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480,927 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Walmart by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 32,020,800 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,893,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,927,173 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on WMT. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Walmart from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Walmart from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. DZ Bank lowered Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $91.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Walmart from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.01.

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.