Walmart (WMT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Walmart (WMT) closed the most recent trading day at $124.44, moving -1.98% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.78%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.68%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.44%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 4.61% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 7.14% and outpaced the S&P 500's loss of 1.32% in that time.
WMT will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.22, down 3.94% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $133.97 billion, up 2.76% from the prior-year quarter.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.93 per share and revenue of $545.78 billion. These totals would mark changes of 0% and +4.16%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for WMT. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. WMT currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, WMT is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 25.74. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.22.
Also, we should mention that WMT has a PEG ratio of 4.86. 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 2.47 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 76, which puts it in the top 30% 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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