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Walmart (WMT) Beats Stock Market Upswing: What Investors Need to Know

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The latest trading session saw Walmart (WMT - Free Report) ending at $82.75, denoting a +0.29% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.27%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.65%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.26%.

The the stock of world's largest retailer has risen by 3.42% in the past month, leading the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 0.61% and the S&P 500's gain of 2%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Walmart in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to go public on November 19, 2024. In that report, analysts expect Walmart to post earnings of $0.53 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 3.92%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $167.55 billion, showing a 4.19% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.44 per share and revenue of $678.74 billion, which would represent changes of +9.91% and +4.72%, respectively, from the prior year.

It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Walmart. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Walmart is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In the context of valuation, Walmart is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 33.85. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 14.03 for its industry.

We can additionally observe that WMT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 4.13. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Retail - Supermarkets was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.87 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 70, positioning it in the top 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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 use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


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