Walmart Inc. [WMT] Stock trading around $141.44 per share: What’s Next?

Walmart Inc. [NYSE: WMT] loss -0.72% or -1.03 points to close at $141.44 with a heavy trading volume of 5547914 shares. The company report on February 21, 2023 that Walmart raises annual dividend to $2.28 per share, marking 50th consecutive year of dividend increases.

The Board of Directors of Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) approved an annual cash dividend for fiscal year 2024 of $2.28 per share, an increase of approximately 2 percent from the $2.24 per share paid for the last fiscal year. The fiscal year 2024 annual dividend of $2.28 per share will be paid in four quarterly installments of $0.57 per share, according to the following record and payable dates:.

It opened the trading session at $142.71, the shares rose to $143.09 and dropped to $140.66, the range by which the price of stock traded the whole day. The daily chart for WMT points out that the company has recorded 4.10% gains over the past six months. However, it is still -20.61% lower than its most recent low trading price.

If we look at the average trading volume of 5.98M shares, WMT reached to a volume of 5547914 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.

Here is what top equities market gurus are saying about Walmart Inc. [WMT]:

Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for WMT shares is $162.02 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on WMT stock is a recommendation set at 2.00. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.

Gordon Haskett have made an estimate for Walmart Inc. shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Accumulate, with their previous recommendation back on February 10, 2023. While these analysts kept the previous recommendation, Barclays raised their target price to Overweight. The new note on the price target was released on February 08, 2023, representing the official price target for Walmart Inc. stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise from $170 to $176, while Tigress Financial kept a Buy rating on WMT stock. On December 20, 2022, analysts increased their price target for WMT shares from 160 to 170.

The Average True Range (ATR) for Walmart Inc. is set at 2.80, with the Price to Sales ratio for WMT stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 0.62. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 5.31, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 4.31.

Trading performance analysis for WMT stock

Walmart Inc. [WMT] fell into the red zone at the end of the last week, falling into a negative trend and dropping by -3.41. With this latest performance, WMT shares dropped by -0.54% in over the last four-week period, additionally plugging by 4.10% over the last 6 months – not to mention a rise of 5.14% in the past year of trading.

Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for WMT stock in for the last two-week period is set at 44.02, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 40.64, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 45.78 for Walmart Inc. [WMT]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 143.48, while it was recorded at 143.51 for the last single week of trading, and 136.21 for the last 200 days.

Walmart Inc. [WMT]: A deeper dive into fundamental analysis

Operating Margin for any stock indicates how profitable investing would be, and Walmart Inc. [WMT] shares currently have an operating margin of +3.34 and a Gross Margin at +24.14. Walmart Inc.’s Net Margin is presently recorded at +1.91.

Return on Equity for this stock inclined to 14.60, with Return on Assets sitting at 4.78.

Walmart Inc.’s liquidity data is similarly interesting compelling, with a Quick Ratio of 0.20 and a Current Ratio set at 0.90.

Walmart Inc. [WMT]: An earnings per share (EPS) analysis

The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for WMT. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for Walmart Inc. go to 3.67%.

An analysis of insider ownership at Walmart Inc. [WMT]

There are presently around $124,002 million, or 32.90% of WMT stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of WMT stocks are: VANGUARD GROUP INC with ownership of 130,535,145, which is approximately 0.276% of the company’s market cap and around 0.90% of the total institutional ownership; BLACKROCK INC., holding 97,023,189 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $13.72 billion in WMT stocks shares; and STATE STREET CORP, currently with $8.58 billion in WMT stock with ownership of nearly -0.048% of the company’s market capitalization.

Positions in Walmart Inc. stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of Tuesday and at the time of the Tuesday reporting period, where 1,365 institutional holders increased their position in Walmart Inc. [NYSE:WMT] by around 37,069,478 shares. Additionally, 1,163 investors decreased positions by around 32,672,978 shares, while 395 investors held positions by with 806,968,951 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 876,711,407 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. WMT stock had 310 new institutional investments in for a total of 8,733,744 shares, while 101 institutional investors sold positions of 2,885,107 shares during the same period.