Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC boosted its position in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 240.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,224 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 29,808 shares during the period. Wal-Mart Stores makes up 0.5% of Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Balasa Dinverno & Foltz LLC’s holdings in Wal-Mart Stores were worth $3,044,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMT. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Wal-Mart Stores during the fourth quarter worth $376,000. Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in shares of Wal-Mart Stores during the fourth quarter worth about $5,213,000. United Capital Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wal-Mart Stores by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. United Capital Financial Advisers LLC now owns 225,961 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $15,618,000 after buying an additional 8,507 shares in the last quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New acquired a new stake in Wal-Mart Stores during the fourth quarter worth $4,285,000. Finally, Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Wal-Mart Stores by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC now owns 7,750 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $536,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. 30.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) opened at 80.48 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $76.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.51. The company has a market capitalization of $242.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.29. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.28 and a 52 week high of $81.40.
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 18th. The retailer reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. Wal-Mart Stores had a return on equity of 16.96% and a net margin of 2.79%. The firm had revenue of $116.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will post $4.36 EPS for the current year.
WMT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Vetr upgraded Wal-Mart Stores from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $79.40 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 15th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Wal-Mart Stores from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Wal-Mart Stores in a research report on Tuesday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Wal-Mart Stores from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $63.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, May 19th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Wal-Mart Stores in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.86.
In related news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,576,324 shares of Wal-Mart Stores stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.65, for a total value of $202,627,882.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,748,580 shares in the company, valued at $530,775,817. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider David Chojnowski sold 5,142 shares of Wal-Mart Stores stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.36, for a total value of $408,069.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,006,720 shares of company stock worth $1,816,131,604 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 51.39% of the company’s stock.
Wal-Mart Stores Company Profile
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc is engaged in the operation of retail, wholesale and other units in various formats around the world. The Company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club. The Walmart U.S. segment includes its mass merchant concept in the United States operating under the Walmart or Wal-Mart brands, as well as digital retail.
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