Walmart's (WMT) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Key Points

• Piper Sandler has reaffirmed an "overweight" rating for Walmart, setting a price target of $111.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.98% from its current stock price.
• Walmart's stock is currently trading around $102.80, having seen a 0.3% increase during recent trading sessions.
• The company reported quarterly earnings of $0.68 per share, which fell short of analyst estimates by $0.06, alongside a revenue of $169.34 billion for the quarter.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating restated by analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $111.00 price target on the retailer's stock. Piper Sandler's price objective suggests a potential upside of 7.98% from the stock's current price.

WMT has been the subject of several other reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $115.00 price objective (up from $112.00) on shares of Walmart in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $106.00 price objective on shares of Walmart in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Walmart from $111.00 to $109.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded Walmart from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Walmart from $130.00 to $127.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 22nd. Twenty-nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Walmart has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $112.38.

Walmart Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE WMT traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $102.80. 4,809,571 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,813,459. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.79. Walmart has a 52 week low of $78.98 and a 52 week high of $106.11. The company has a market cap of $819.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.64, a PEG ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $99.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $95.77.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 21st. The retailer reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $169.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $174.02 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 3.08% and a return on equity of 21.45%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. Walmart has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.580-0.600 EPS. FY 2026 guidance at 2.520-2.620 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Walmart will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Walmart

In other news, EVP Kathryn J. Mclay sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.83, for a total value of $415,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 1,048,455 shares in the company, valued at $108,861,082.65. This represents a 0.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Daniel J. Bartlett sold 1,610 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.71, for a total value of $166,973.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 645,968 shares of the company's stock, valued at $66,993,341.28. This trade represents a 0.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 151,232 shares of company stock worth $14,960,635 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Walmart by 1.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 431,817,510 shares of the retailer's stock worth $42,223,116,000 after buying an additional 5,856,468 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in Walmart by 397,264.9% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 104,514,912 shares of the retailer's stock worth $10,496,702,000 after purchasing an additional 104,488,610 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Walmart by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 94,557,532 shares of the retailer's stock worth $9,199,712,000 after buying an additional 263,718 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Walmart in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,367,770,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Walmart by 30.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 33,292,749 shares of the retailer's stock worth $2,922,770,000 after acquiring an additional 7,706,201 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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