Walmart (NYSE:WMT) Stock Price Down 0.2% After Analyst Downgrade

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)’s share price fell 0.2% during trading on Wednesday after Evercore ISI lowered their price target on the stock from $67.00 to $66.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Walmart traded as low as $59.78 and last traded at $59.84. 14,726,259 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 15% from the average session volume of 12,761,192 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.93.

WMT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Walmart to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Walmart from $62.00 to $63.33 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Walmart to $66.67 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on Walmart from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walmart news, SVP David Chojnowski sold 10,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.33, for a total transaction of $638,750.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 104,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,086,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Walmart news, SVP David Chojnowski sold 10,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.33, for a total transaction of $638,750.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 104,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,086,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total value of $1,559,298.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,274,475 shares in the company, valued at $228,855,391.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,032,265 shares of company stock worth $1,696,559,224 in the last ninety days. 46.51% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $3,674,652,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Walmart by 112,181.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 22,854,919 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,240,599,000 after acquiring an additional 22,834,564 shares during the period. BlueSpruce Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $568,419,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Walmart by 15,371.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,511,225 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $553,545,000 after acquiring an additional 3,488,530 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Walmart by 30.7% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,279,324 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,935,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,887,002 shares in the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Walmart Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market cap of $480.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.44.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $173.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $170.85 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.08% and a net margin of 2.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Walmart Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.2075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. Walmart’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.46%.

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.