Walmart (WMT) closed the most recent trading day at $127.59, moving -1.79% from the previous trading session. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.12% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.13%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.2%.
The stock of world's largest retailer has risen by 5.72% in the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 12.69% and the S&P 500's gain of 9.3%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Walmart in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on May 21, 2026. In that report, analysts expect Walmart to post earnings of $0.65 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.56%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $174.05 billion, up 5.1% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $2.89 per share and a revenue of $748.82 billion, demonstrating changes of +9.47% and +5%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Walmart should also be noted by investors. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Walmart is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Digging into valuation, Walmart currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 44.97. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 15.13, so one might conclude that Walmart is trading at a premium comparatively.
It's also important to note that WMT currently trades at a PEG ratio of 4.84. 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. Retail - Supermarkets stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.16 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 156, this industry ranks in the bottom 37% of all industries, numbering over 250.
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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Walmart Inc. (WMT): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).