Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 250,194 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 13,456 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $16,941,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Walmart by 218.3% during the second quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 35,318 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,391,000 after purchasing an additional 24,221 shares during the period. Certuity LLC raised its position in shares of Walmart by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 22,839 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,551,000 after buying an additional 3,098 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Walmart by 9.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,602 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $127,519,000 after acquiring an additional 157,091 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Walmart during the second quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, MainStreet Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Walmart by 274.6% during the second quarter. MainStreet Investment Advisors LLC now owns 64,143 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $4,343,000 after acquiring an additional 47,021 shares during the last quarter. 26.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

In other news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 1,244,347 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.63, for a total transaction of $82,910,840.61. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 633,518,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,211,325,061.93. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder S Robson Walton sold 1,244,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.63, for a total transaction of $82,910,840.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 633,518,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,211,325,061.93. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.48, for a total transaction of $232,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 384,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,765,104.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,144,237 shares of company stock worth $730,497,016 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 45.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on WMT shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on Walmart from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Walmart in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Walmart from $75.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Walmart presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.99.

Walmart Price Performance

Shares of WMT opened at $76.64 on Friday. 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 market cap of $616.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.80, a PEG ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.51. Walmart Inc. has a 52 week low of $49.85 and a 52 week high of $77.81. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $71.45 and a 200-day moving average of $65.43.

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