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Walmart (WMT) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Walmart (WMT) closed at $136.70 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.52% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.3%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.37%.

Heading into today, shares of the world's largest retailer had gained 4.05% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 3.71% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.02% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from WMT as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.18, up 1.72% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $131.74 billion, up 2.93% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.35 per share and revenue of $551.08 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.52% and +5.18%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WMT. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.67% higher. WMT is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking at its valuation, WMT is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 25.43. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.85, so we one might conclude that WMT is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that WMT currently has a PEG ratio of 4.51. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Supermarkets industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.38 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 82, which puts it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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