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 declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 21st. Investors 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 2.67%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 6th. View Wal-Mart Stores' Dividend History.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) posted its earnings results on Thursday, May, 18th. The company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $116.53 billion for 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter 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 earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.00-1.08 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $1.07.

32 brokerages have issued 12-month target prices for Wal-Mart Stores' shares. Their predictions range from $61.00 to $90.00. On average, they expect Wal-Mart Stores' stock price to reach $77.73 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. 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)
• 2. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Shares of Wal-Mart have outperformed the industry over the past one year. Also, estimates have been rising ahead of its first-quarter fiscal 2018 earnings release. Management remains focused on building its e-commerce capabilities, foraying into new markets, expanding product assortments and implementing innovative ways to drive traffic. It has acquired four e-commerce acquisitions that is in-line with the company’s efforts to grow its online activities. Further, the end of Shipping Pass and announcement of free two-day shipping service will make the company competitive against Amazon. Notably, it posted positive comps for 10 straight quarters now, alongside reporting better-than-expected results in the recent quarter. However, unfavorable currency and deflationary pressure might hurt its comps, going forward. Also, decline in international revenues, stiff competition from both brick & mortar and online retailers pose concerns." (5/11/2017)
• 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 during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,130,216 shares, an increase of 11.8% from the May 31st total of 32,330,406 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,992,123 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days. Currently, 2.5% 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), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (CRESY), Ingles Markets, Incorporated (IMKTA), Smart (SFS), Conviviality PLC (CVR), 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. (3.47%), BlackRock Inc. (3.00%), State Street Corp (2.43%), State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (0.55%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.52%) and Geode Capital Management LLC (0.51%). Company insiders that own Wal-Mart Stores stock include Alice L Walton, C Douglas Mcmillon, 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 New York Mellon Corp, Parametric Portfolio Associates LLC, Morgan Stanley, Schroder Investment Management Group, Clearbridge Investments LLC, Acadian Asset Management LLC, AQR Capital Management LLC and State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D. Company insiders that have sold Wal-Mart Stores stock in the last year include Alice L Walton, C Douglas Mcmillon, 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 BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc., Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Karp Capital Management Corp, Swiss National Bank, Geode Capital Management LLC and Renaissance Technologies LLC. 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 $76.51.