Walmart (WMT) closed the latest trading day at $146.13, up +0.88% from the previous trading session. The move lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 1.29%. Meanwhile, the Dow rose 0.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 10.96%.
To date, the world’s largest retailer’s stock has fallen 1.78% over the past month, trailing the retail and wholesale sector’s 2.19% gain and the S&P 500’s 0.23% decline.
Wall Street seeks optimism as Walmart approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Walmart is expected to report earnings of $1.50 per share for him, which would put him down 1.96% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus forecast says he needs $158.81 billion in revenue, up 3.88% from the same period last year.
Looking at the full year, Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts expect earnings of $6.08 per share and earnings of $605.64 billion. These totals represent a -5.88% and +5.74% change respectively from last year.
Investors should also be aware of recent changes to Walmart analyst estimates. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of near-term business trends. As a result, a positive estimate revision can be interpreted as a positive sign for the company’s outlook.
Research shows that these revisions to estimates are directly correlated with near-term stock price momentum. We developed Zack Rank to take advantage of this phenomenon. Our system takes into account these quote changes to provide a clear and actionable valuation model.
The Zacks rank system ranges from 1st (strong buy) to 5th (strong sell). Since 1988, the #1 stocks have averaged 25% annualized returns. Over the past 30 days, our consensus EPS forecast has remained stagnant. Walmart now ranks him #2 (Buy) on Zacks Rank.
In terms of valuations, Walmart is currently trading at a forward P/E of 23.84. For comparison, the industry’s average forward P/E is 11.71, meaning Walmart trades at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that the current PEG ratio for WMT is 4.33. This common metric is similar to the well-known P/E ratio, except that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company’s expected earnings growth. As of yesterday’s close, WMT’s industry average PEG ratio was 2.23.
The retail-supermarket industry is part of the retail-wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 11, placing them in the top 5% of all industries over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank measures the strength of individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of individual stocks within the group. Our research shows that industries rated in the top 50% are two to one times better than those in the bottom half.
You can find more information on all of these metrics and more at Zacks.com.
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Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Inventory Analysis Report
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