Walmart (NYSE:WMT – Get Free Report) The price target was raised by equity analysts at Evercore ISI from $74.00 to $78.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the retailer’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target suggests a potential upside of 6.19% from the stock’s current price.

WMT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Walmart from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Walmart from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Walmart from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. HSBC raised their price target on shares of Walmart from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Barclays raised its price target on Walmart shares to $78.00 from $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock a “hold,” 26 have given it a “buy” rating and one has given it a “strong buy” rating. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “moderate buy” and a consensus price target of $77.79.

Check out our latest stock report on WMT

Walmart shares rise 0.7%

WMT shares opened at $73.45 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $590.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.50. The company’s 50-day moving average is $68.86 and its 200-day moving average is $63.37. Walmart has a 52-week low of $49.85 and a 52-week high of $74.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15. The retailer reported earnings per share of $0.67 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $169.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.88% and a return on equity of 21.57%. Walmart’s revenue for the quarter increased 4.7% year-over-year. During the same quarter last year, the company generated earnings per share of $0.61. Analysts forecast that Walmart will report earnings per share of $2.43 for the current year.

Insider activity

In other news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 1,132,123 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total value of $73,610,637.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 647,371,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,092,120,157.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 3,633,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.80, for a total transaction of $242,737,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 636,898,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,544,840,574.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 1,132,123 shares of the company’s stock on Thursday, May 23. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total value of $73,610,637.46. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 647,371,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,092,120,157.76. The disclosure of this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,000,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $725,932,010. 45.58% of the shares are currently owned by insiders.

Institutional inflows and outflows

Several institutional investors have recently increased or reduced their holdings in WMT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Walmart by 199.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $24,774,717,000 after purchasing an additional 274,229,968 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Walmart by 181.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 56,861,234 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,421,342,000 after purchasing an additional 36,625,314 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $3,674,652,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Walmart by 183.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 29,172,985 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,755,339,000 after purchasing an additional 18,865,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Walmart shares by 212.6% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 14,035,473 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $844,514,000 after purchasing an additional 9,544,958 shares in the last quarter. 26.76% of the shares are currently owned by institutional investors.

Walmart Company Profile

(Get free report)

Walmart Inc. operates retail, wholesale, other business and e-commerce businesses worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Walmart US, Walmart International and Sam’s Club. It operates supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash-and-carry stores and discount stores under the Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands; members-only warehouse clubs; e-commerce websites such as walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, PhonePe and other websites; and mobile commerce applications.

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