Calamos Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Walmart Inc. $WMT

Key Points

• Calamos Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Walmart by 10.6% in Q4, selling 174,986 shares and leaving it with 1,478,905 shares worth roughly $164.8 million (about 0.6% of the firm's portfolio).
• Walmart beat quarterly revenue and EPS (EPS $0.74 vs. $0.73; revenue $190.66B vs. $188.37B), set FY27 EPS guidance of 2.75–2.85, and retains a consensus "Buy" rating with an average price target near $137.79 (several firms have raised targets, including Bank of America at $150).
• Valuation and cash-flow concerns remain—WMT trades at a high P/E (~47.4) with heavy capex weighing on free cash flow—and insiders have sold about 263,376 shares (~$32.9M) over the past three months.

Calamos Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ:WMT - Free Report) by 10.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,478,905 shares of the retailer's stock after selling 174,986 shares during the period. Walmart accounts for about 0.6% of Calamos Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Calamos Advisors LLC's holdings in Walmart were worth $164,765,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Collier Financial purchased a new stake in Walmart during the third quarter worth $25,000. Your Advocates Ltd. LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Beacon Financial Strategies CORP purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Roble Belko & Company Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Walmart by 212.6% during the 3rd quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc now owns 322 shares of the retailer's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.76% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Walmart

Here are the key news stories impacting Walmart this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company released its 2026 Annual Report highlighting investments in associates and AI tools aimed at improving customer experience, operations and productivity — messaging that supports longer-term growth prospects. Walmart Touts People and AI in Annual Report
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat revenue and EPS expectations and management set FY27 EPS guidance, showing underlying sales and margins resilience — a supportive signal for fundamentals. WMT MarketBeat summary
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $140, and the consensus analyst rating remains a "Buy" — these represent catalyst potential if upgrades continue. Morgan Stanley Increases Walmart Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic initiatives that could drive sales mix and margins: a major redesign of the Great Value private label (10,000 items) and expansion of health offerings via Better Care Services. Those moves support SKU refresh and higher-margin services. Is Walmart One of the Best Performing Dow Stocks?
• Neutral Sentiment: Walmart is diversifying beyond retail (new Upstream Facility Services maintenance unit) — a long-term revenue diversification that is unlikely to move near-term earnings materially. Walmart Diversifies Beyond Retail Into Maintenance Services
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest reporting is effectively meaningless in the latest print (reported as zero), so short-covering dynamics are not a current driver. Short Interest Data
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and cash-flow concerns: several commentary pieces argue WMT is expensive (high P/E) given slowing growth and heavy capital expenditure that suppresses free cash flow — these critiques are the most likely reason traders are taking profits after recent gains. Walmart: Too Expensive Considering Slowing Growth
• Negative Sentiment: Another analysis highlights that large capex to support technology and store initiatives is weighing on free cash flow, raising near-term margin and valuation risk for investors. Speculative Valuation As Free Cash Flow Is Held Down By Immense Capex

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price objective on Walmart from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Walmart in a report on Friday, February 20th. HSBC lowered Walmart from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $131.00 in a report on Friday, February 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $120.00 price objective on Walmart in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Walmart in a report on Friday, February 27th. They set a "buy" rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $137.79.

Walmart Stock Performance

Shares of WMT stock opened at $129.92 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $125.59 and a 200 day moving average of $117.02. Walmart Inc. has a 1 year low of $91.89 and a 1 year high of $134.69.

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The retailer reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $190.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.37 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.44% and a net margin of 3.07%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. Walmart has set its FY 2027 guidance at 2.750-2.850 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.610-0.610 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Walmart Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 4th. Investors of record on Friday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 11th. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Walmart's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Christopher James Nicholas sold 34,082 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.00, for a total value of $4,158,004.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 533,466 shares in the company, valued at $65,082,852. This trade represents a 6.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director C Douglas Mcmillon sold 19,416 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.71, for a total value of $2,460,201.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,023,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at $509,780,812.39. This trade represents a 0.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 263,376 shares of company stock worth $32,851,650 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Walmart Company Profile

Walmart is a multinational retail corporation that operates a broad portfolio of store formats and digital services. Its core business includes large-format supercenters, discount department stores, neighborhood grocery stores and a membership warehouse chain, Sam’s Club. The company’s merchandising mix covers groceries, household goods, apparel, electronics and pharmacy services, supplemented by private-label products and category-specific offerings. Walmart pairs its physical store network with online platforms and mobile applications to provide omnichannel shopping, fulfillment and delivery options for consumers and businesses.

The company was founded by Sam Walton, who opened the first store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962; it is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.

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