Wal-Mart Stores Company Profile (NYSE:WMT)

Wal-Mart Stores trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "WMT."

Wal-Mart Stores announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share on Tuesday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 6th. View Wal-Mart Stores' Dividend History.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May, 18th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. The company earned $116.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.01 billion. Wal-Mart Stores had a return on equity of 16.96% and a net margin of 2.79%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. View Wal-Mart Stores' Earnings History.

Wal-Mart Stores is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, August, 17th 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Wal-Mart Stores.

Wal-Mart Stores updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Thursday, May, 18th. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.00-1.08 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $1.07.

31 equities research analysts have issued 1-year target prices for Wal-Mart Stores' shares. Their forecasts range from $61.00 to $90.00. On average, they anticipate Wal-Mart Stores' share price to reach $78.39 in the next twelve months. View Analyst Ratings for Wal-Mart Stores.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Wal-Mart Stores stock:

• 1. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Share price of Wal-Mart has been outperforming the Zacks categorized Retail-Supermarkets industry since the past six months. Wal-Mart continues to impress investors with positive comps at Wal-Mart U.S. for 11 successive quarters. The impact of rising consumer spending was seen in improved traffic during the first-quarter fiscal 2018. Moreover, the company’s price-matching initiative has been bearing fruits. The company is also taking advantage of the booming online grocery shopping and delivery industry by expanding its business offerings. Wal-Mart’s e-commerce business development initiatives are also commendable. The company’s acquisition of four e-commerce businesses since the Jet.com acquisition is in-line with the company’s efforts to grow its online activities. However unfavorable currency, decline in international revenues and stiff competition  poses concerns for the company's performace." (7/19/2017)
• 2. BMO Capital Markets analysts commented, "We still see many challenges ahead, including emerging competition from hard discounters and an adverse margin mix from growth in e-commerce, but we see a path of better relative sales and transaction growth over the next 12 months that is unlikely to cause the stock to underperform," (5/19/2017)
• 3. Wells Fargo & Company analysts commented, "We view WMT’s 7%+ FCF yield as attractive, but we see risk/reward more balanced at 7.6x NTM EV/EBITDA (in line with 5/10-year avg.) as incremental comp improvement gets harder from here, macro and tax overhangs remain, and the need for reinvestment could delay a return to profit growth to FY19 and beyond.  Marc Lore making his mark. WMT continues to shake up its ecom platform, which contributed +40bps to the WMT US comp, with global e-commerce sales and GMV (gross merch. value) increasing +15.5%/+17.5% (GMV +29.7% ex. Yihaodian). During the Q, several strategic moves came to light, including a larger stake in China’s JD.com to 12% and initiatives: 1) combining U.S. store and online procurement efforts, allowing WMT to better leverage its scale across platforms; 2) implementing free 2-day shipping ($35 min.) in the U.S. on the heels of recent ecom fulfillment investments; and 3) tuck-in acquisitions of Shoebuy and Moosejaw in order to widen WMT’s U.S. merchandising depth and category assortment. We view WMT’s ecom initiatives as the right long-term strategy, but we see a multi-year investment period in which profitability likely yields to ongoing store and ecommerce upgrades." (2/21/2017)
• 4. Stifel Nicolaus analysts commented, "We are resuming coverage of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. with a Hold rating and $70 target price, 7.8x F2018E EBITDA. We anticipate U.S. comparable store sales growth of 1%-2% and low single-digit international sales growth to continue through F2019, though we also anticipate overall sales growth below longer-term 3%-4% expectations. We also expect investment levels to remain heightened, including spend on associates, competitive price adjustments, expanding e-commerce, and remodels, constraining EPS and resulting in growth modestly below company expectations in F2018 and F2019. We believe WMT shares trade near fair value, with current valuation not providing adequate risk/reward to overweight, in our view." (1/19/2017)

Wal-Mart Stores saw a increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 40,611,101 shares, an increase of 12.4% from the June 15th total of 36,130,216 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 13,509,813 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Some companies that are related to Wal-Mart Stores include Whole Foods Market (WFM), J Sainsbury plc (SBRY), Caseys General Stores (CASY), IRSA Inversiones Y Representaciones S.A. (IRS), SpartanNash Company (SPTN), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (CRESY), Conviviality PLC (CVR), Ingles Markets, Incorporated (IMKTA), Smart (SFS), Pantry (PTRY), The Fresh Market (TFM) and Whole Foods Market (WFMI).

Wal-Mart Stores' management team includes the folowing people:

• Greg Boyd Penner, Chairman of the Board
• C. Douglas McMillon, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
• M. Brett Biggs, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
• Rollin L. Ford, Chief Administrative Officer, Executive Vice President
• Jeffrey J. Gearhart, Executive Vice President - Global Governance, Corporate Secretary
• Neil M. Ashe, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer - Global eCommerce and Technology
• Daniel J. Bartlett, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs
• Jacqueline P. Canney, Executive Vice President - Global People
• David Cheesewright, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer - International Division
• Gregory S. Foran, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer - Walmart U.S. division

Wal-Mart Stores' stock is owned by a variety of of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional investors include Fisher Asset Management LLC (0.19%), Bank of Montreal Can (0.18%), Cullinan Associates Inc. (0.11%), Hexavest Inc. (0.08%), US Bancorp DE (0.07%) and Aperio Group LLC (0.06%). Company insiders that own Wal-Mart Stores stock include Alice L Walton, C Douglas Mcmillon, David Cheesewright, David Chojnowski, Jacqueline P Canney, Jeffrey J Gearhart, Jim C Walton, Rollin L Ford, Rosalind G Brewer, S Robson Walton, Steven P Whaley and Timothy Patrick Flynn. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Wal-Mart Stores.

Wal-Mart Stores' stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Bank of Montreal Can, Focused Investors LLC, Hexavest Inc., Gateway Investment Advisers LLC, NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V., Exxonmobil Investment Management Inc. TX, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC and Cullinan Associates Inc.. Company insiders that have sold Wal-Mart Stores stock in the last year include Alice L Walton, C Douglas Mcmillon, David Cheesewright, David Chojnowski, Jacqueline P Canney, Jeffrey J Gearhart, Jim C Walton, Rosalind G Brewer, S Robson Walton and Steven P Whaley. View Insider Buying and Selling for Wal-Mart Stores.

Wal-Mart Stores' stock was bought by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Fisher Asset Management LLC, Aperio Group LLC, National Pension Service, Barometer Capital Management Inc., Nepsis Capital Management Inc., US Bancorp DE, Chemung Canal Trust Co. and First National Bank of Mount Dora Trust Investment Services. View Insider Buying and Selling for Wal-Mart Stores.

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Wal-Mart Stores stock can currently be purchased for approximately $76.15.