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. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.51 per share on Tuesday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 6th. View Wal-Mart Stores' Dividend History.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May, 18th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $116.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $117.01 billion. Wal-Mart Stores had a return on equity of 16.96% and a net margin of 2.79%. Wal-Mart Stores's revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $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 issued an update on 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 earnings per share estimate of $1.07.

31 equities research analysts have issued 1 year target prices for Wal-Mart Stores' shares. Their predictions range from $61.00 to $90.00. On average, they anticipate Wal-Mart Stores' share price to reach $78.64 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 daily trading volume, of 13,509,813 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Approximately 2.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

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), Smart (SFS), Ingles Markets, Incorporated (IMKTA), 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 many different of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional shareholders include Fisher Asset Management LLC (0.19%), Bank of Montreal Can (0.18%), Cullinan Associates Inc. (0.11%), Russell Investments Group Ltd. (0.09%), Hexavest Inc. (0.08%) and US Bancorp DE (0.07%). 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 Acadian Asset Management LLC, Bank of Montreal Can, Russell Investments Group Ltd., Focused Investors LLC, Meag Munich Ergo Kapitalanlagegesellschaft MBH, Hexavest Inc., Gateway Investment Advisers LLC and NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V.. 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, ING Groep NV, National Pension Service, Barometer Capital Management Inc., Nepsis Capital Management Inc., Jag Capital Management LLC and US Bancorp DE. 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 $78.52.