Centaurus Financial Inc. Raises Position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Centaurus Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 15.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,237 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,014 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in Walmart were worth $2,402,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Walmart by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 137,214,807 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $21,944,764,000 after acquiring an additional 751,713 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Walmart by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 24,087,268 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,852,277,000 after acquiring an additional 426,388 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $3,674,652,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Walmart by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,235,920 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $3,190,194,000 after acquiring an additional 2,150,351 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Walmart by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,873,127 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,698,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,317,729 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Walmart

In other news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 3,633,800 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.80, for a total transaction of $242,737,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 636,898,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,544,840,574.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 3,633,800 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.80, for a total transaction of $242,737,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 636,898,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,544,840,574.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 1,132,123 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.02, for a total transaction of $73,610,637.46. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 647,371,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,092,120,157.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,493,971 shares of company stock valued at $950,549,592. Insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WMT shares. Roth Mkm increased their price target on Walmart from $69.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Walmart from $62.00 to $63.33 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Walmart from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Walmart from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Walmart from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.94.

Walmart Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:WMT traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, hitting $67.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,590,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,134,117. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $62.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.15. The company has a market capitalization of $539.08 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a current ratio of 0.80. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $67.57.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The retailer reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $161.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $159.57 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 2.88% and a return on equity of 21.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current fiscal 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.