Walmart (WMT – Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $91.80, demonstrating a +1.09% swing from the preceding day’s closing price. This move outpaced the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.16%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.25%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.06%.
Shares of the world’s largest retailer witnessed a loss of 3.96% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Retail-Wholesale sector with its loss of 4.84% and underperforming the S&P 500’s loss of 2.8%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Walmart in its upcoming release. The company is slated to reveal its earnings on February 20, 2025. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.64, up 6.67% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $179.28 billion, up 3.4% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $2.47 per share and a revenue of $679.45 billion, demonstrating changes of +11.26% and +4.83%, respectively, from the preceding year.
It’s also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Walmart. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Walmart is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Walmart is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 36.71. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry’s Forward P/E of 13.44.
It is also worth noting that WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.31. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company’s projected earnings growth. WMT’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.12 as of yesterday’s close.
The Retail – Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 177, finds itself in the bottom 30% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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