Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC Has $6.86 Million Stake in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC reduced its position in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 84,992 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 6,418 shares during the quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $6,863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Walmart by 199.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,745,334 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $24,774,717,000 after purchasing an additional 274,229,968 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Walmart by 181.0% in the first 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 period. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Walmart by 187.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 13,303,200 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $800,454,000 after buying an additional 8,674,100 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Walmart by 284.0% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 11,122,273 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $669,227,000 after purchasing an additional 8,225,552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Walmart by 184.1% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 12,567,533 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $756,188,000 after buying an additional 8,144,393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on WMT shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on Walmart from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com upgraded Walmart from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Walmart in a research report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Walmart from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Walmart from $81.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.89.

Walmart Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:WMT traded up $0.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $82.14. 4,788,151 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,810,594. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $79.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.94. The stock has a market cap of $660.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 0.51. Walmart Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $49.85 and a fifty-two week high of $83.34.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,709,163 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total value of $209,607,941.31. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 630,501,148 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,781,873,820.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Walmart news, EVP John R. Furner sold 13,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.96, for a total transaction of $1,088,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 593,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,198,598.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Alice L. Walton sold 2,709,163 shares of Walmart stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.37, for a total transaction of $209,607,941.31. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 630,501,148 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,781,873,820.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,334,337 shares of company stock valued at $958,577,287 over the last 90 days. 45.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Walmart

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.