Walmart (WMT) Registers a Bigger Fall Than the Market: Important Facts to Note
Walmart (WMT) ended the recent trading session at $79.78, demonstrating a -0.18% swing from the preceding day's closing price. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.13%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.33%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.39%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 4.58% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 6.55% and outpacing the S&P 500's gain of 2.43% in that time.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Walmart in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.53, up 3.92% from the prior-year quarter. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $167.55 billion, showing a 4.19% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $2.44 per share and a revenue of $678.75 billion, signifying shifts of +9.91% and +4.73%, respectively, from the last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. As of now, Walmart holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, Walmart is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 32.79. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.08.
We can additionally observe that WMT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 4. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As the market closed yesterday, the Retail - Supermarkets industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.06.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 22, putting it in the top 9% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report