Meridian Wealth Management LLC Invests $11.68 Million in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 144,449 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $11,678,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Walmart by 181.0% in the 1st 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 increased its position in Walmart by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 36,282,740 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,456,704,000 after purchasing an additional 644,353 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Walmart by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,236,769 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,522,369,000 after purchasing an additional 350,881 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 15,290,936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Walmart by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,766,325 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,353,881,000 after purchasing an additional 484,196 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Walmart Stock Up 0.4 %

Walmart stock opened at $88.76 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.54. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $88.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $713.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.22.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.05. Walmart had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 21.78%. The business had revenue of $169.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $167.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.51 EPS. Walmart’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Walmart Inc. will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Walmart news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,873,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,322,993.92. The trade was a 0.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,709,163 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total transaction of $209,607,941.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 630,501,148 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,781,873,820.76. The trade was a 0.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,337,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,823,647 in the last 90 days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on WMT shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Walmart from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Walmart from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price objective on Walmart from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp raised their target price on Walmart from $88.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Walmart to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.88.

Walmart Company Profile

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.