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Walmart (WMT) Rises Higher Than Market: Key Facts

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The latest trading session saw Walmart (WMT - Free Report) ending at $163.24, denoting a +1.35% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.88%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.54%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 1.35%.

Shares of the world's largest retailer have appreciated by 4.79% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 0.38% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Walmart in its upcoming earnings disclosure. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.63, marking a 4.68% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $170.25 billion, indicating a 3.78% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.44 per share and a revenue of $644.94 billion, representing changes of +2.38% and +5.51%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.14% lower. Walmart currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, Walmart is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 25. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.66.

We can additionally observe that WMT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 3.42. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Retail - Supermarkets industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.03.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 11, putting it in the top 5% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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