Walmart Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:WMT)

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 245,424 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 82% compared to the average daily volume of 134,801 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other Walmart news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.47, for a total transaction of $277,410.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 375,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,691,507.55. This represents a 0.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.64, for a total value of $2,348,559.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,873,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $312,322,993.92. The trade was a 0.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,309,091 shares of company stock worth $183,375,539 in the last quarter. 45.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Walmart

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Walmart by 479.6% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 18,479,259 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,492,200,000 after buying an additional 15,290,936 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Walmart by 12.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,135,639 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,098,203,000 after acquiring an additional 7,200,004 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Walmart by 8,814.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 6,963,218 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $562,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,885,106 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Walmart by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 87,617,409 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $7,048,465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of Walmart by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,282,129 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,102,463,000 after purchasing an additional 2,246,656 shares during the period. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Walmart Price Performance

Shares of Walmart stock opened at $94.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.23. Walmart has a one year low of $50.51 and a one year high of $96.18. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $757.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.54.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $169.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $167.69 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 21.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. Analysts forecast that Walmart will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price objective on Walmart from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Walmart from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Walmart from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.33.

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.