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 paid a dividend of $0.51 per share on Tuesday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 6th. View Wal-Mart Stores' Dividend History.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August, 17th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.01. The firm earned $121.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.86 billion. Wal-Mart Stores had a return on equity of 16.96% and a net margin of 2.79%. The firm's revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.07 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 FY18 earnings guidance on Thursday, August, 17th. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $4.30-4.40 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $4.36. Wal-Mart Stores also updated its Q3 guidance to $0.90-0.98 EPS.

33 brokers have issued 12 month price objectives for Wal-Mart Stores' stock. Their forecasts range from $61.00 to $91.00. On average, they anticipate Wal-Mart Stores' stock price to reach $80.13 in the next year. View Analyst Ratings for Wal-Mart Stores.

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

• 1. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. analysts commented, "fresher than it's been in years."Walmart is in the early stages of developing what could prove to be a "model" omni-channel structure, the analyst explained. For instance, the acquisition of Jet.com is just one of many "meaningful step forward" to solidify its status a "proven industry innovator" with many "unique capabilities." So far, there are early encouraging signs of growth in the online channel as gross merchandise volume accelerated to 69 percent on a year-over-year basis.Meanwhile, Walmart isn't neglecting its physical stores and has many initiatives ahead to spur growth, including:Online grocery shopping and collect in store.Two-day shipping with a $35 minimum from stores.Home delivery experiments.Also, improving food inflation trends could help boost top-line growth.Finally, the entrance of the Germany-based budget grocery chain Lidl to the U.S. market shouldn't cause investors to worry. Walmart was able to respond very aggressively to sustain its market position through pricing and merchandising fronts."In our view, WMT, more than many other leading chains, now recognizes an opportunity to leverage the key attributes that fuel its dominance in physical retail, in the digital world and increasingly go 'toe to toe' with eCommerce leaders such as amazon.com," (8/2/2017)
• 2. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Shares of Wal-Mart have outperformed the Retail-Supermarkets industry in the last one year, primarily owing to sturdy earnings history. We note that the company continues to gain from its robust strategies such as price-matching initiative and expanding e-commerce business. Also, its acquisition of four e-commerce businesses since the Jet.com acquisition is in-line with the company’s efforts to grow its online activities. Recently, Wal-Mart extended its partnership with JD.com to integrate the platforms, supply chains and customer resources in China. Furthermore, it is benefiting from the booming online grocery shopping and delivery industry by expanding its business offerings. Notably, it posted positive comps at the U.S. segment for 11 successive quarters now. However, unfavorable currency, soft international revenues and stiff competition pose concerns. Nonetheless, estimates have been stable ahead of the second-quarter earnings." (7/27/2017)
• 3. 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)
• 4. 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)

Wal-Mart Stores saw a increase in short interest during 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 volume of 13,509,813 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the stock 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), Conviviality PLC (CVR), Smart (SFS), Ingles Markets, Incorporated (IMKTA), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (CRESY), 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 number of of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors include Vanguard Group Inc. (3.51%), BlackRock Inc. (2.97%), State Street Corp (2.38%), Dodge & Cox (0.70%), FMR LLC (0.60%) and Northern Trust Corp (0.59%). 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 State Street Corp, Schroder Investment Management Group, BlackRock Inc., Karp Capital Management Corp, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company , Bank of New York Mellon Corp, American Century Companies Inc. and Acadian Asset Management LLC. 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 purchased by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including FMR LLC, Alliancebernstein L.P., Parametric Portfolio Associates LLC, Neuberger Berman Group LLC, Fred Alger Management Inc., State of Tennessee Treasury Department, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. and Janus Henderson Group PLC. 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 $79.70.