Walmart Inc. $WMT Stock Sold by Soltis Investment Advisors LLC

Soltis Investment Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NASDAQ:WMT) by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,198 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 23,419 shares during the quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $2,826,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Walmart by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 188,036,646 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $21,297,031,000 after purchasing an additional 2,107,781 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart in the second quarter valued at about $7,455,131,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Walmart by 6.4% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 28,142,040 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,497,493,000 after buying an additional 1,681,353 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Walmart during the second quarter worth about $2,905,655,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Walmart by 44.4% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 20,796,957 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,355,463,000 after buying an additional 6,393,326 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

More Walmart News

Here are the key news stories impacting Walmart this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Energy investment expands Walmart’s customer offerings: Walmart is making a strategic investment in Base Power and will offer the company’s home battery systems to Walmart customers and Sam’s Club members beginning in November. The systems are designed to reduce energy costs and provide backup power, creating a potential new customer benefit while expanding Walmart’s ecosystem beyond traditional retail. Walmart and Base Power announce strategic agreement
• Positive Sentiment: Major automation agreement with Symbotic: Walmart expanded its commercial relationship with warehouse-automation provider Symbotic in a deal valued at approximately $6 billion. Greater automation could improve fulfillment capacity, labor efficiency and inventory management, although the investment also carries execution and capital-spending risks. Symbotic stock jumps on Walmart automation deal
• Positive Sentiment: Strong fundamentals continue to support the stock: Walmart’s latest quarterly results exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising year over year. Analysts and market commentary continue to highlight earnings growth and price strength as reasons to remain constructive on WMT. Earnings growth and price strength make Walmart a stock to watch
• Neutral Sentiment: Healthcare expansion offers a longer-term growth avenue: Walmart has broadened its Better Care Services platform into a healthcare marketplace connecting customers with third-party providers. The initiative could increase customer engagement, but its financial contribution is not yet clear. Walmart launched a healthcare services marketplace
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive and regulatory concerns remain: DoorDash’s proposed $17 billion acquisition of Instacart is intended partly to strengthen competition with Walmart and Amazon in local commerce and grocery delivery. Separately, the FTC is seeking information from Walmart about the use of personal data in personalized pricing, creating potential compliance and reputational risks. FTC orders Walmart and others to share pricing data information
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation comparisons could limit upside: Walmart trades at a substantially higher earnings multiple than Target, while commentary suggests Walmart’s comparable-sales growth may be moderating. That premium leaves the stock more exposed if growth expectations weaken. Target trades at a fraction of Walmart’s valuation

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on WMT shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Walmart from $140.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 21st. Guggenheim set a $130.00 price objective on Walmart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Walmart in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Walmart to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Walmart from $147.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-three have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $132.41.

Walmart Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of WMT stock opened at $123.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $979.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.88 and a fifty-two week high of $135.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.40.

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 20th. The retailer reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.07. Walmart had a net margin of 3.00% and a return on equity of 21.83%. The business had revenue of $187.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Walmart has set its Q3 2027 guidance at 0.620-0.640 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 2.800-2.870 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 2.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Walmart

In other news, EVP Christopher Nicholas sold 2,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.60, for a total value of $349,740.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 563,353 shares in the company, valued at $67,940,371.80. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO John R. Furner sold 13,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.66, for a total transaction of $1,399,912.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 647,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,106,293.92. This trade represents a 1.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 102,244 shares of company stock valued at $11,112,044 in the last quarter. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Walmart

Walmart Inc (NASDAQ:WMT) operates a global retail business through a network of supercenters, supermarkets, discount stores, neighborhood markets, warehouse clubs and e-commerce platforms. Its stores and websites sell a broad assortment of merchandise, including groceries, consumables, health and wellness products, apparel, electronics, home goods, toys and other general merchandise.

The company organizes its operations into Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. Walmart U.S.