Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a dividend of 0.235 per share by the retailer on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. This is a boost from Walmart’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

Walmart has raised its dividend by an average of 4.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 52 consecutive years. Walmart has a dividend payout ratio of 30.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Walmart to earn $3.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.1%.

Walmart Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of WMT opened at $94.70 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $95.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.82. Walmart has a 52-week low of $57.77 and a 52-week high of $105.30. The company has a market cap of $760.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.30, a PEG ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.55.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.02. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 2.85%. The business had revenue of $180.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.83 billion. Analysts predict that Walmart will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walmart news, Director Robert Edward Jr. Moritz bought 5,446 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $91.81 per share, with a total value of $499,997.26. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 7,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $716,577.05. This trade represents a 230.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.44, for a total transaction of $2,663,098.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,814,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $348,825,769.20. This trade represents a 0.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 176,777 shares of company stock valued at $16,570,112 over the last three months. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Walmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Walmart from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Walmart from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Walmart from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $115.00 price target (up from $106.00) on shares of Walmart in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Walmart presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $102.43.

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.