Today Barrons is reporting: "Investors shouldn't get carried away by the rosy preliminary sales numbers from the biggest shopping weekend of the year, warned Walmart ( ticker: WMT ) CEO Doug McMillon on Wednesday." For full coverage click here. Shares of the large-cap Consumer Defensive company have not moved much on the news as of the afternoon trading session, and are currently trading at $148.99.
Walmart Inc. engages in the operation of retail, wholesale, and other units worldwide. The company belongs to the Consumer Defensive sector, which has an average price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.21 and an average price to book (P/B) ratio of 4.09. In contrast, Walmart has a trailing 12 month P/E ratio of 45.8 and a P/B ratio of 5.6.
Walmart has moved 9.3% over the last year compared to -16.2% for the S&P 500 -- a difference of 25.5%. Walmart has a 52 week high of $160.77 and a 52 week low of $117.27. At today's price of $148.99 per share, Walmart is -7.25% away from its target price of $160.63, and on average, analysts give the stock a rating of buy. 0.8% of the company's shares are linked to short positions, and 32.6% of the shares are owned by institutional investors.
