Verus Capital Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Verus Capital Partners LLC reduced its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 7.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,210 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 976 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $986,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Walmart by 199.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $24,774,717,000 after purchasing an additional 274,229,968 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Walmart by 181.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 56,861,234 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,421,342,000 after buying an additional 36,625,314 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Walmart by 1.8% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 36,282,740 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,456,704,000 after buying an additional 644,353 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in Walmart by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,766,325 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,353,881,000 after acquiring an additional 484,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Walmart by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,184,945 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,095,946,000 after acquiring an additional 834,005 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WMT shares. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Walmart from $87.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Walmart from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.15.

Walmart Stock Performance

WMT opened at $85.01 on Wednesday. Walmart Inc. has a 12-month low of $49.85 and a 12-month high of $85.54. The company has a market cap of $683.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.20, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $80.67 and its 200 day moving average is $72.27.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $169.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,709,163 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total value of $209,607,941.31. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 630,501,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,781,873,820.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Walmart news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,709,163 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total value of $209,607,941.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 630,501,148 shares in the company, valued at $48,781,873,820.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 4,057,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.20, for a total transaction of $313,228,886.80. Following the sale, the insider now owns 611,988,318 shares in the company, valued at $47,245,498,149.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,337,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,823,647 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

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.