The latest trading session saw Walmart (WMT) ending at $91.66, denoting a -1.22% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 1.11%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.77%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.49%.
Shares of the world's largest retailer have appreciated by 0.99% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.42% and outperforming the S&P 500's gain of 0.4%.
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. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $0.64, marking a 6.67% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $179.28 billion, up 3.4% from the year-ago period.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $2.47 per share and a revenue of $679.45 billion, signifying shifts of +11.26% and +4.83%, respectively, from the last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the company's business performance and profit potential.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. At present, Walmart boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Walmart has a Forward P/E ratio of 37.51 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.01, which means Walmart is trading at a premium to the group.
One should further note that WMT currently holds a PEG ratio of 4.4. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Retail - Supermarkets industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.25.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 79, putting it in the top 32% of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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