Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results on Thursday before the markets open. The consensus estimates call for $1.22 in earnings per share (EPS) and $125.97 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $1.08 on $123.36 billion in revenue.
The last Toys “R” Us stores closed on June 29, and those closures included the chain’s Babies “R” Us stores. Since the bankruptcy filing was announced, Walmart has added some 30,000 items to its assortment of baby gear and search traffic for baby items has jumped 40%.
In fact, Walmart launched its own website (actually a landing page from its main site) featuring furniture in curated collections of the most popular nursery styles.
Lauren Uppington, vice-president and general manager of Walmart’s baby e-commerce business, noted in the announcement:
This new, dedicated nursery experience complements our broader baby assortment online, which we’ve been growing aggressively by adding more than 30,000 new items over the past year, including Chicco car seats and strollers, Delta Children products, Skiddaddle by Skip Hop baby accessories, the SNOO Smart Sleeper bassinet by Happiest Baby and Water Wipes. It also follows efforts to create a new in-store experience in the baby department in more than 2,000 stores across the country.
Excluding Wednesday’s move, Walmart had underperformed the broad markets, with its stock up only 12% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock was down 8%.
A few analysts weighed in on Walmart ahead of the report:
- JPMorgan has a Neutral rating and an $87 price target.
- RBC has a Neutral rating with a $90 price target.
- Gordon Haskett has a Hold rating.
- Morgan Stanley has a Neutral rating with a $90 target.
- Susquehanna has a Positive rating with an $80 target.
- Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating and a $98 target price.
Shares of Walmart were last seen down about 1% at $89.86 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $94.44 and a 52-week trading range of $77.50 to $109.98.
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