Emerald Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Emerald Advisors LLC bought a new position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 2,386 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Walmart in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 77.3% during the third quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 399 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. Finally, Hara Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Walmart in the third quarter valued at about $37,000. 26.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.80, for a total transaction of $3,754,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 257,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,419,362.80. This trade represents a 12.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP David Chojnowski sold 5,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.45, for a total transaction of $512,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 87,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,993,095.80. This represents a 6.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 175,177 shares of company stock worth $16,403,728. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Walmart Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMT opened at $103.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $834.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.64, a PEG ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.55. Walmart Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.60 and a 12 month high of $105.30. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $169.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $167.69 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 21.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on WMT. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Walmart from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $86.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Walmart from $100.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Walmart from $98.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, DZ Bank lowered Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $91.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.87.

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.