Walmart (WMT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Walmart (WMT) closed at $144.23, marking a +0.43% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.42%. At the same time, the Dow added 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 5.16%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 1.04% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 0.41% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.27% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Walmart as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Walmart is projected to report earnings of $1.31 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 0.77%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $148.6 billion, up 4.97% from the year-ago period.
WMT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.10 per share and revenue of $631.16 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -3.02% and +3.25%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.1% lower within the past month. Walmart is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
Digging into valuation, Walmart currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.55. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.77.
We can also see that WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.28. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. WMT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.82 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
