In the latest trading session, Walmart (WMT) closed at $151.18, marking a -0.27% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.16%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.08%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 7.95%.
Coming into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 1.95% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 0.6%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.53%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Walmart as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 18, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Walmart to post earnings of $1.30 per share. This would mark no growth from the year-ago period. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $148.52 billion, up 4.91% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.07 per share and revenue of $631.34 billion, which would represent changes of -3.5% and +3.28%, respectively, from the prior year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
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 has moved 0.42% lower. Walmart is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Walmart is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 24.99. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.25, which means Walmart is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.54. 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. WMT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.92 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 18, putting it in the top 8% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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