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Walmart (WMT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Walmart (WMT - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $94.59, moving -0.56% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.03%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.03%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the world's largest retailer had lost 3.57% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 3.41% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.1% in that time.

WMT will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be November 15, 2018. On that day, WMT is projected to report earnings of $1.03 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 3%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $124.18 billion, up 0.81% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.80 per share and revenue of $513.64 billion, which would represent changes of +8.6% and +2.66%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WMT should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.37% lower within the past month. WMT is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WMT has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.83 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.98, which means WMT is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that WMT has a PEG ratio of 3.34 right now. 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. Retail - Supermarkets stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.2 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 89, putting it in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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