SRN Advisors LLC Purchases 158 Shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

SRN Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,632 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. SRN Advisors LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $1,141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Walmart during the 4th quarter valued at about $232,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its stake in Walmart by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 152,191 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $13,750,000 after buying an additional 7,244 shares during the last quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Walmart by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 55,752 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,037,000 after purchasing an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. LifeGoal Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Walmart during the fourth quarter worth $267,000. Finally, Sabal Trust CO grew its stake in Walmart by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Sabal Trust CO now owns 9,745 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $880,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WMT shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Walmart from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Walmart from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Walmart in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Walmart from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Walmart has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.07.

Walmart Stock Performance

Shares of WMT opened at $96.11 on Thursday. Walmart Inc. has a 1 year low of $58.20 and a 1 year high of $105.30. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.17. The company has a market capitalization of $772.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.88, a PEG ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.02. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 2.85%. The company had revenue of $180.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.83 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Walmart Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.235 dividend. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Walmart’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.00%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Christopher James Nicholas sold 17,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.42, for a total value of $1,661,792.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 348,357 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,891,867.94. This trade represents a 4.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John R. Furner sold 13,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.60, for a total transaction of $1,215,375.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 566,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,485,124.40. This trade represents a 2.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 146,528 shares of company stock valued at $13,849,185 in the last 90 days. 45.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.