Yahoo Finance Walmart (WMT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Walmart (WMT) closed at $143.87 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.21% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.46% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.09%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 6.63%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 0.25% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 10.03% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.75% in that time.
Walmart will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 21, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Walmart to post earnings of $1.50 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 1.96%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $158.81 billion, up 3.88% from the year-ago period.
WMT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.08 per share and revenue of $605.64 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -5.88% and +5.74%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Walmart currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Walmart has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.39 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.9.
We can also see that WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.25. 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 2.23 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 12, putting it in the top 5% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
