Lazari Capital Management Inc. Has $745,000 Stock Position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Lazari Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 9.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,997 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 947 shares during the period. Lazari Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Walmart were worth $745,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Walmart by 199.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $24,774,717,000 after acquiring an additional 274,229,968 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Walmart by 181.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 36,625,314 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Walmart by 1.8% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 36,282,740 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,456,704,000 after purchasing an additional 644,353 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Walmart by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,282,129 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,102,463,000 after buying an additional 2,246,656 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 834,005 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WMT. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Walmart from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays lifted their target price on Walmart from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Walmart from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $81.62.

Walmart Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of WMT stock opened at $81.27 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $653.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78, a PEG ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 0.51. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $81.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.85.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $169.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 2.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Walmart

In related news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.19, for a total value of $207,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 387,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,787,946.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 4,057,369 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.20, for a total transaction of $313,228,886.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 611,988,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,245,498,149.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.19, for a total transaction of $207,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 387,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,787,946.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,334,670 shares of company stock valued at $958,025,027 over the last ninety days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Walmart

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.