Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) Shares Sold by Calamos Advisors LLC

Calamos Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,729,454 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 21,635 shares during the period. Walmart makes up about 0.5% of Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $117,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AHL Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Walmart by 192.1% in the first quarter. AHL Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,000 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,444,000 after acquiring an additional 15,785 shares during the period. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. raised its position in Walmart by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. now owns 7,816 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,232,000 after acquiring an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in Walmart by 38.9% during the fourth quarter. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,501 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $237,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart in the first quarter valued at about $270,000. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 189.4% during the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 917,625 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $55,213,000 after purchasing an additional 600,521 shares in the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director S Robson Walton sold 1,562,239 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $101,545,535.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 642,949,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,791,724,715. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.39, for a total transaction of $1,991,790.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,960,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $270,851,892.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director S Robson Walton sold 1,562,239 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $101,545,535.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 642,949,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,791,724,715. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,827,328 shares of company stock valued at $584,261,549 over the last three months. Company insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Walmart from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Walmart from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on Walmart from $63.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Walmart presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.64.

Walmart Stock Performance

WMT traded up $0.12 on Friday, hitting $75.70. 12,299,093 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,978,366. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $69.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.03. Walmart Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.85 and a twelve month high of $76.22. The firm has a market cap of $608.90 billion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.50.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 2.34%. The business had revenue of $169.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Walmart

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.