bLong Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

bLong Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,797 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $704,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Fiduciary Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Walmart by 77.3% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 399 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Walmart during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other Walmart news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 257,281 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,419,362.80. This trade represents a 12.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP David Chojnowski sold 5,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.45, for a total transaction of $512,120.00. Following the sale, 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 ninety days, insiders sold 175,177 shares of company stock worth $16,403,728. 45.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on WMT. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Walmart in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Walmart from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Walmart from $98.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.17.

Walmart Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE WMT opened at $104.04 on Friday. Walmart Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.99 and a 1 year high of $105.30. The stock has a market cap of $835.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $94.99 and a 200 day moving average of $85.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.23.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $169.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $167.69 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 21.78%. Walmart’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.51 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walmart Company Profile

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.