Gouws Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Gouws Capital LLC bought a new position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,500 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WMT. Oxbow Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 45.0% in the third quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 28,453 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,298,000 after purchasing an additional 8,834 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 21.9% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 587,001 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $47,400,000 after purchasing an additional 105,430 shares during the period. Whalerock Point Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 213.5% in the first quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC now owns 29,613 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,782,000 after purchasing an additional 20,167 shares during the period. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 201.0% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,092 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 14.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,235,504 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $503,517,000 after purchasing an additional 809,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Walmart Price Performance

Shares of Walmart stock traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $84.66. 3,133,651 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,647,551. The company has a market cap of $680.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.51. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $85.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.22 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. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 2.34%. The business had revenue of $169.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WMT. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Walmart from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Walmart in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Walmart presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.84.

Insider Activity at Walmart

In related news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.12, for a total value of $246,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 378,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,054,909.80. The trade was a 0.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 4,057,369 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.20, for a total value of $313,228,886.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 611,988,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,245,498,149.60. The trade was a 0.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,337,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,823,647 over the last ninety days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.