On July 8, 2018, AroniSmartInvest™ In Action, based on the analysis with AroniSmartInvest, predicted that Wal*Mart (NASDAQ: WMT) stock continued to build on a momentum from June 2017. The finding was that Wal*Mart (NASDAQ: WMT) momentum was expected to accelerate for the rest of 2018.
The finding was that Wal*Mart (NASDAQ: WMT) momentum was expected to accelerate for the rest of 2018. Today, Wal*Mart stock price reached $99.67, before anding at $97.85. Since June 2018, the stock has a growth of around 13%, from $88.00. This is on top of 18% from June 2017 to July 2018, when the first AroniSmartInvest in Action projections were made.
The momentum at Wal*Mart confirm two things:
- The online strategy that Wal-Mart has started to fully action a new delivery program appears to be working, and
- The investors appear confident the prospects of Wal*Mart expansion in international markets, especially in India, with Flipkart acquisition, and in Healthcare.
When reporting on financial performance this week, Wal*Mart highlighted strong fiscal Q2 earnings and significant same-store sales gains. Wal*Mart adjusted earnings were $1.29 a share, beating the Zacks Investment Research forecast by 8 cents a share and same-store sales grew by 4.5% in the U.S., the biggest jump in 10 years.
Wal*Mart raised guidance for fiscal year 2019 adjusted earnings to a range of $4.90-$5.05, excluding Flipkart, the sale of a majority stake in Wal*Mart Brazil, tax reform adjustments, and unrealized losses in its investment in the e-commerce company JD.com (JD), dominating the Chinese market.
Will Wal*Mart catch up with Amazon?
Wal*Mart maket valuation has jumped from 260B to 289B, in just 1 1/2 month.
Amazon has a market valuation of 981B, up from $880B in the same period. Hence, to match Amazon, Wal-Mart stil need to grow its stock value close to 3 times, which is an improvement on the 3 times situation in July 2018. Will the steps taken continue to help Wal-Mart to do it in the next few years?