VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC Purchases Shares of 600 Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 600 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $54,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT raised its position in Walmart by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 222,839 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $20,134,000 after purchasing an additional 8,125 shares in the last quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC raised its position in Walmart by 89.7% during the fourth quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC now owns 42,936 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,879,000 after purchasing an additional 20,300 shares in the last quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. raised its position in Walmart by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. now owns 161,277 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $14,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,954 shares in the last quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Walmart by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,623 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,315,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI raised its position in Walmart by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 43,270 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,909,000 after purchasing an additional 3,737 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Walmart from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Walmart from $109.00 to $107.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Walmart from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Walmart from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Walmart from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.43.

Walmart Price Performance

WMT stock opened at $94.70 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $95.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.57. Walmart Inc. has a 52-week low of $57.77 and a 52-week high of $105.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $760.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.30, a PEG ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.02. Walmart had a net margin of 2.85% and a return on equity of 21.87%. The firm had revenue of $180.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.83 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walmart Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.235 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $0.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. Walmart’s payout ratio is currently 34.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.44, for a total transaction of $2,663,098.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,814,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $348,825,769.20. The trade was a 0.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP David Chojnowski sold 5,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.45, for a total transaction of $512,120.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 87,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,993,095.80. The trade was a 6.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 176,777 shares of company stock worth $16,570,112 in the last three months. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

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.