Easterly Investment Partners LLC Grows Stake in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 27.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 97,806 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 21,241 shares during the quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $7,898,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Walmart by 199.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $24,774,717,000 after acquiring an additional 274,229,968 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings 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 valued at $3,421,342,000 after purchasing an additional 36,625,314 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Walmart by 1.8% during 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. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Walmart by 3.0% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 16,766,325 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,353,881,000 after buying an additional 484,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Walmart by 5.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,184,945 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,095,946,000 after buying an additional 834,005 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Walmart

In other Walmart news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.48, for a total transaction of $232,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 384,165 shares in the company, valued at $29,765,104.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Walmart news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.64, for a total transaction of $2,348,559.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,873,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,322,993.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.48, for a total transaction of $232,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 384,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,765,104.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,337,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,823,647 over the last 90 days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Walmart from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Walmart from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim upped their target price on Walmart from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Oppenheimer lifted 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Walmart from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.92.

Walmart Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Walmart stock traded up $1.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $85.13. 3,650,072 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,728,295. The firm has a market cap of $684.30 billion, a PE ratio of 44.20, a PEG ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.80. Walmart Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.85 and a 1 year high of $85.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $80.22 and its 200 day moving average is $71.67.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The retailer reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $169.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.56 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 2.34%. Walmart’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Walmart 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.