LGT Group Foundation Increases Stock Holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

LGT Group Foundation increased its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 62,093 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 630 shares during the quarter. LGT Group Foundation’s holdings in Walmart were worth $4,204,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Walmart by 199.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $24,774,717,000 after acquiring an additional 274,229,968 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Walmart by 181.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 56,861,234 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,421,342,000 after acquiring an additional 36,625,314 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Walmart by 183.0% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,172,985 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,755,339,000 after buying an additional 18,865,484 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Walmart during the fourth quarter valued at $3,674,652,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Walmart by 16.0% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,282,129 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,102,463,000 after buying an additional 2,246,656 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other Walmart news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 1,244,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.63, for a total transaction of $82,910,840.61. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 633,518,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,211,325,061.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 1,244,347 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.63, for a total transaction of $82,910,840.61. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 633,518,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,211,325,061.93. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP John R. Furner sold 13,125 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.85, for a total value of $877,406.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 658,665 shares in the company, valued at $44,031,755.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,510,437 shares of company stock worth $487,759,176 in the last three months. 45.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Walmart Trading Up 0.9 %

Walmart stock opened at $77.35 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.62. The company has a market cap of $621.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.84 and a beta of 0.51. Walmart Inc. has a 52-week low of $49.85 and a 52-week high of $77.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $169.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 2.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.61 EPS. Analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on WMT. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Walmart from $64.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Walmart from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Walmart from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Bank of America raised their price objective on Walmart from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Walmart from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.99.

Walmart 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.