Walmart stock may be categorized as a defensive stock since it is a retailer selling products that people need and it sells them at a discount. Accordingly, Walmart operations may be resilient to negative effects coming from economic downturns, which has a crucial impact on its market value.

Walmart stock history shows that this company has recorded a continuous increase in value due to its business model and the expansion of its business activities. Another alluring feature of this stock is the dividend payout policy. Walmart has achieved dividend growth ever since it had paid the first dividend a few decades ago. Investors should consider Walmart stock for their future investments because analysts forecast continuance in the upward trend. Trading signals based on popular technical indicators and company fundamentals also support the positive sentiment associated with Walmart stock.

Walmart Overview

Walmart Inc. is a publicly-traded company with its headquarters located in Bentonville, Ark, U.S. The company’s origin can be traced back to 1962 when Sam Walton founded its first discount store. Since its inception, Walmart has grown to become recognized as one of the largest retailers in the world. It is also ranked as the largest company by revenue according to Fortune 500.

Walmart’s Activities Today

Walmart operates in the consumer services sector. It manages various retail and wholesale stores selling a large variety of merchandise through its segments Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam’s Club and Walmart U.S eCommerce. The company operates more than 10,000 stores and clubs and eCommerce websites in 24 countries. It offers services in multiple markets such as Africa, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, India, Mexico. Walmart has more than 2.2 million employees with 1.6 million employees in the U.S. The number of employees in the U.S. makes this company the biggest non-governmental employer in the U.S.

Walmart has more than 150 distribution centres. These cover the needs of its stores and clubs and delivery services to its customers. The size of its distribution hubs makes it one of the largest distribution businesses globally, with a transportation fleet composed of more than 60,000 trailers and in excess of 6,000 tractors serviced by more than 7,000 drivers.

Walmart’s Strategic Outlook

Walmart is also known for its objective to have operations with zero carbon emission by 2040 while using 100% renewable energy by 2035. During the last decade, Walmart has managed to double its market capitalization, reaching a market cap of more than $400 billion (£288.5 billion) in 2021, which places Walmart in the top 20 largest companies in terms of market cap. In 2021 Walmart operations generated nearly $560 billion (£403.8 billion) in revenue, and during the last decade, the company managed to increase its revenue year over year.

Walmart Stock Historical Price

Walmart stock symbol is WMT and its common stock was available to the public for the first time in 1970 when 300,000 shares were offered at a price of $16.5, whereas the stock started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in August 1972. The Walmart stock price today is around $149, which is slightly below the previous high of nearly $153.

Walmart stock price history shows that the value of this stock tends to move in an upward trend during the last decade, while it recorded one major price retracement at the end of 2015 when the price declined by nearly 30%. Nevertheless, the Walmart stock price has bounced back and continued its upward movement. The stock has experienced an increase of more than 160% in the last ten years while it displays a potential fluctuation of around 20% during a 52-week period.

Walmart stock recorded multiple stock splits until 1999. Since its IPO, the company has performed a two-for-one stock split eleven times, meaning that for each stock owned, the stock owner received two new stocks. After the Walmart stock split and the shares repurchase program, the current Walmart stock market consists of 2,788,497,816 shares outstanding.

Why Invest in Walmart Share? Points to Consider

Analyzing Walmart fundamentals and the changes in historical prices is a prerequisite when planning to invest in this stock. The analysis and stock forecasts help traders better understand potential Walmart stock price movements and detect possible buy or sell signals.

Walmart’s Business Model

Sam Walton founded Walmart with a rather innovative business model centred around the “Every Day Low Price” concept. The company is focused on offering low prices to its customers, which will help them to save money and improve their living standards. Although Walmart is focused on selling products at significant discounts, it makes profits based on the sales volume and efficient marketing strategy, ensuring that Walmart marketing costs are significantly lower than its competitors.

To cover the needs of different customers and remain consistent with its strategy to provide a wide variety of products at low costs, Walmart manages different physical stores like Supercenter, Discount Store, Neighborhood Market, and eCommerce websites. The company products assortment comprises of housewares, small appliances, electronics, books, musical instruments, games, apparel, pets, pharmaceutical products, tools, jewellery, etc.

Walmart’s Strategic Moves

The success of its business model didn’t turn Walmart into a passive or reactive company which is evident from the company’s plans to adapt to market changes and changes in how people execute their purchases. Hence, Walmart has launched the Walmart+ service as part of the process of adapting and modifying its strategy to the 21-century market conditions and the desire to compete with new competitors such as Amazon. Walmart Plus is a paid subscription service that enables customers to buy products offered by Walmart online or through its stores.

Aside from the “discount prices” business model, Walmart share is also influenced by the buyback strategy pursued by the company. Estimates show that Walmart has repurchased around 30% of its common stock since 2003 as part of its buyback strategy. It is generally accepted that the stock repurchase program has a positive effect on share price due to changes in the supply and demand as well as the effect on the company’s key ratios. Accordingly, Walmart’s continuous stock repurchase activities could indicate a positive impact on the Walmart share price.

Walmart Stock Dividend Information

Another factor to look at when considering Walmart stock is the Walmart stock dividend payout history. Due to its long dividend-paying history, Walmart stock is sometimes referred to as a dividend stock. This is because it has made dividend payout for more than 45 years. Also, Walmart has managed to increase the dividend amount from one year to another ever since it distributed the first dividend of $0.05 per share in 1974. During the last couple of years, Walmart has achieved an average dividend growth of around 4%.

The company has paid out an annual cash dividend of $2.2 per share to its shareholders in 2021. This came with an estimated trailing yield of around 1.5%. The dividends are paid four times per year. However, Walmart doesn’t have a regular quarterly payment, as is the case with other companies. While Walmart dividend payout is an important factor that has an impact on the share price, its continuity depends on the company’s ability to generate earnings and maintain a stable cash flow.

Dividends are paid out of the company’s earnings. As such, Walmart distributes around 50% of its profit in the form of dividends. This percentage is in line with the dividend payout percentage seen in other companies.

When looking at the cash flow, we noticed that Walmart distribution level is approximately 30% of its available cash flow. This is also the acceptable level for other companies. This shows that Walmart stock dividend payout policy and the level of earnings and cash flow may offer uninterrupted dividend distribution in the future.

Walmart Stock Forecast and Prediction

We can use different types of tools and analysis to analyse a company stock and anticipate its price movements in the future or identify potential buy or sell signals. Investors and traders can use technical analysis or fundamental analysis to examine Walmart stock. While technical analysis provides insight into the possible price changes based on its past movements, the fundamental analysis takes a more in-depth look at the company fundamentals that significantly impact the company value.

Walmart Stock Technical Analysis

The technical analysis requires the use of different types of technical indicators. These estimate stock characteristics such as momentum, volatility, trend direction, volume, seller’s or buyer’s pressure, etc. Accordingly, the technical analysis for Walmart stock price indicates that this share is a buy and hold for the upcoming period based on multiple technical indicators.

For instance, when plotting moving averages indicators on a daily and weekly chart, they signal that the Walmart stock is a buy. More precisely, the simple and exponential moving averages indicators for 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 periods anticipate a potential increase in Walmart share price. Furthermore, the MACD indicator, RSI, ADX, Ultimate Oscillator, Awesome Oscillator, and the Bull/Bear power categorise the Walmart stock as a buy when evaluated on a daily time frame. The aforementioned indicators and the STOCH, CCI, ROC and Highs/Lows indicators show the buy signal when considering a weekly time frame.

Walmart Predictions by Analysts

Due to its size and significance in the U.S. market, a large number of analysts from reputable brokerage firms and other financial institutions follow WMT. Individual analysts and groups of analysts provide forecasts on a regular basis about the potential movements in Walmart stock prices coming from changes in the underlying fundamentals and changes in the business environment.

Accordingly, dozens of analysts coming from different financial institutions forecast a positive movement in Walmart share price in the short to medium term. The commonly quoted potential median target price for this stock is $170. However, some analysts anticipate that the target price for Walmart stock might be around $172. The Walmart stock forecast also shows that the stock’s highest expected price for the upcoming period is around $190. This is something that most analysts agree with. On the other hand, analysts estimated that the low price could reach a level of around $127. Some analysts forecast a minimum price of $152 or even a minimum price of around $156, while they place the maximum expected price at the level of around $185.

Although there might be slight differences in the estimates related to the possible level of Walmart stock price, there is consensus among analysts that the share will continue its upward movement in the upcoming period. Moreover, Walmart stock has received a recommendation as an Overweight which shows that analysts not only agree that this stock is a buy, but it could potentially outperform the sector average in the short term.

Walmart Financial Performance Forecast

Forecasts regarding Walmart financial performance in the upcoming period also supports the positive outlook for this stock. Analysts expect that the revenue growth experienced during the last couple of years will also continue in the future. Estimates show expectations for possible growth of Earnings Per Share (EPS), which will positively impact Walmart stock.

Where to Buy Walmart Stock?

You can easily invest in Walmart stock when you open an account with a reputable broker such as ZFX.

ZFX, Trade and invest in stocks and other assets with 0 Commission

The ZFX broker enables traders to buy Walmart stock with zero commission and a spread as low as 0.28. ZFX gives its clients an opportunity to invest in Walmart shares with leverage of 1:20 or a margin as low as 5%, which is not otherwise available when directly buying a stock of ownership from Walmart or another company.

The leverage provided by ZFX means that traders can open larger positions with the same level of investment capital, thus augmenting their potential gains.

How to Buy Walmart Stock Now?

You can trade Walmart stock on ZFX through the MT4 platform. This is a well-known and reputable trading platform. The process to buy and sell Walmart stock includes these few easy steps:

1 – Register with ZFX
2 – Verify your ZFX account
3 – Make your first deposit
4 – Buy Walmart stock

Let’s look into each step in detail.

1 – Register with ZFX

The first step is to register an account with ZFX by going to the upper right corner of ZFX.com and hitting the “Open an account” button. Also, you can select the “Accounts” options from the upper menu and then press “Open A Live Trading Account”. The following window will appear on your screen.

Trade Walmart - Step 1

You start by filling in the form with the primary information about you, followed by the verification process. ZFX offers different account types to its clients depending on their investment, needs, preferences and trading experience. The three account types are Mini Trading Account, Standard STP Trading Account, and ECN Trading Account.

2 – Account Verification

To verify your account, you will need to upload a document to confirm your identity. The acceptable documents are a national ID card, driver’s license, or passport. ZFX will request clients to upload a scanned copy of specific pages as part of the verification process. trade Walmart shares with ZFX - Step 4

You also need to confirm that you own a valid bank account. To do so, you can provide a copy of the bank statement. Alternatively, you can give a photo of the first page of the bank book.

3 – Make Your First Deposit

When you are ready to fund your account, log in to your ZFX profile by hitting the MyZFX button. Once you log in, you press the “Deposit” button and go through the simple instructions.

trade Walmart stock with ZFX - Step 3

ZFX clients can choose to deposit funds through Bank Wire or Credit Cards. Note that ZFX won’t charge fees when traders make a deposit. The minimum required deposit amount depends on the type of account. For example, with the Mini Trading Account, the minimum deposit is only $50.

4 – Buy Walmart Stock

Traders can buy Walmart stock through ZFX MT4. ZFX offers a number of analytical tools, indicators and detailed reporting and statements along with Walmart stock quote in real-time. You start by downloading the preferred ZFX MT4 platform for your device.

After you download your ZFX MT4 platform, go to “Accounts” on the left side of your screen. Then, select your account. On the next window that appears, you select the “ZealCapitalMarketSC-Live” server. Then, log in with the details provided in your sign-up mail.

You can trade Walmart stock by selecting the desired assets from the “Market watch” section. This section is located on the left-hand side. Once you select the financial assets, a window will appear. Here, you need to set the planned volume, define stop loss or take profit according to your analysis and set the type of order.

Bottom Line: Should You Buy Walmart Stock?

Based on the different features and characteristics presented for Walmart stock, we could conclude that it is a stock worth buying. There are multiple reasons that led us to conclude that this stock might continue its upward movement in the next periods. Some of the most common reasons supporting the recommendation for this stock are:

The company is adapting its business model and its strategy. This is to account for changes in its environment and to cope with the potential threat coming from existing and new competitors
Positive outlook for Walmart financial performance (revenue growth, increase in EPS, dividend growth, etc.)
Some of the widely used technical indicators signal potential price increase for Walmart stock
The majority of analysts forecast a positive outlook for Walmart stock based on expectations related to the company’s fundamentals.

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