New York Life Investment Management LLC Has $31.94 Million Stock Holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

New York Life Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 202,576 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 17,631 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Walmart were worth $31,936,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Walmart by 26.6% during the 3rd quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. now owns 252,600 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $40,398,000 after buying an additional 53,000 shares during the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd increased its position in Walmart by 28.0% during the third quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 767,013 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $122,668,000 after acquiring an additional 167,800 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in Walmart by 1.5% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,480,971 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $235,608,000 after acquiring an additional 21,899 shares during the period. Capital Wealth Planning LLC increased its position in Walmart by 32.5% during the third quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 2,117,190 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $338,602,000 after acquiring an additional 518,896 shares during the period. Finally, Pittenger & Anderson Inc. increased its position in Walmart by 0.7% during the third quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 48,468 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $7,751,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Walmart from $67.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Walmart in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Walmart to $66.67 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Walmart from $62.00 to $63.33 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.75.

Walmart Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE WMT traded down $0.50 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $58.85. The stock had a trading volume of 15,459,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,667,303. The firm has a market cap of $474.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.49. Walmart Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.34 and a twelve month high of $61.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $59.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.90.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The retailer reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. Walmart had a net margin of 2.39% and a return on equity of 21.08%. The company had revenue of $173.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $170.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Walmart’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Walmart Inc. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

Walmart Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.2075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. Walmart’s payout ratio is 43.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walmart news, SVP David Chojnowski sold 10,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.33, for a total transaction of $638,750.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 104,346 shares in the company, valued at $6,086,850. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,124 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.93, for a total value of $1,687,250.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,076,892 shares in the company, valued at $236,187,943.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP David Chojnowski sold 10,950 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.33, for a total transaction of $638,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 104,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,086,850. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,019,140 shares of company stock worth $1,696,035,551. Insiders own 46.51% of the company’s stock.

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.