Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Buys New Holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 19,860 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,794,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Walmart by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,325 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,565,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Professional Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Walmart by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Professional Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,672 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,048,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Walmart by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 68,607 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,213,000 after buying an additional 848 shares during the last quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC grew its holdings in Walmart by 139.6% during the fourth quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 19,525 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,764,000 after buying an additional 11,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graves Light Lenhart Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Walmart during the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other news, EVP Daniel J. Bartlett sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.99, for a total transaction of $166,384.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 423,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,049,852.03. This trade represents a 0.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.37, for a total transaction of $214,214.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 632,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,607,751.66. This trade represents a 0.35% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 133,857 shares of company stock valued at $12,444,743. Company insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on WMT shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Walmart from $112.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Walmart from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Walmart from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Walmart from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Walmart has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.94.

Walmart Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of WMT opened at $96.69 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $90.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.19. The company has a market cap of $773.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Walmart Inc. has a twelve month low of $59.47 and a twelve month high of $105.30.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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. As a group, analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Walmart Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 9th. Walmart’s payout ratio is 39.00%.

Walmart Company 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.