Walmart Inc. $WMT Shares Sold by William Blair Investment Management LLC

William Blair Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ:WMT) by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 318,930 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 43,152 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $32,869,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Walmart by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 98,150 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $8,868,000 after purchasing an additional 21,939 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Walmart by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 8,849 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $800,000 after buying an additional 485 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Walmart by 3.5% in the first quarter. Peterson Wealth Management now owns 50,307 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $4,416,000 after buying an additional 1,715 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walmart by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 13,008 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,272,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Walmart by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 91,341 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $8,931,000 after buying an additional 1,048 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on WMT. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Walmart from $110.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Argus raised shares of Walmart to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $125.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. HSBC downgraded Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $122.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.42.

Insider Activity

In other Walmart news, EVP John R. Furner sold 13,125 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.99, for a total transaction of $1,574,868.75. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 727,155 shares in the company, valued at $87,251,328.45. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.27, for a total transaction of $2,445,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 506,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,962,034.28. The trade was a 3.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 259,703 shares of company stock valued at $31,585,043 over the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Walmart Stock Performance

Shares of Walmart stock opened at $127.95 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.79. Walmart Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.81 and a 1 year high of $134.69. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 46.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 0.66.

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The retailer reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.01. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.44% and a net margin of 3.07%.The firm had revenue of $190.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $188.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. Walmart’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Walmart has set its FY 2027 guidance at 2.750-2.850 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.610-0.610 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Walmart Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 4th. Investors of record on Friday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2475 per share. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 11th. Walmart’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.31%.

About Walmart

Walmart is a multinational retail corporation that operates a broad portfolio of store formats and digital services. Its core business includes large-format supercenters, discount department stores, neighborhood grocery stores and a membership warehouse chain, Sam’s Club. The company’s merchandising mix covers groceries, household goods, apparel, electronics and pharmacy services, supplemented by private-label products and category-specific offerings. Walmart pairs its physical store network with online platforms and mobile applications to provide omnichannel shopping, fulfillment and delivery options for consumers and businesses.

The company was founded by Sam Walton, who opened the first store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962; it is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.