On Thursday, August 18th, Wal-Mart Inc. (WMT - Analyst Report) will release its Q2 FY2017 earnings results. The company is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and shares are up about 20.4% year-to-date.
Join Dave at 1pm on Wednesday, August 15th, to see his thoughts on Wal-Mart’s past earnings, looks at what is currently going on with the company, and gives us his thoughts on their upcoming earnings announcement.
Furthermore, Dave will look into some potential options trades for investors looking to make a play on Wal-Mart ahead of earnings.
Wal-Mart in Focus
Wal-Mart is engaged in the operation of mass merchandising stores, which serve its customers primarily through the operation of three segments, which are the Wal-Mart Stores segment, the Sam's Club segment and the International segment.
Wal-Mart is coming off of an earnings beat of 11.4% in its Q1 FY2017 earnings report, posting an EPS that was $0.10 higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
WMT has an average EPS surprise of 4% for the last four quarters. In Q2 FY2016, WMT missed estimates by 3.6%. WMT then went on to beat estimates in Q3 and Q4 by 6.2% and 2.1% respectively.
WAL-MART STORES Price and EPS Surprise
WAL-MART STORES Price and EPS Surprise | WAL-MART STORES Quote
Heading into this earnings report, our Most Accurate Estimate for Wal-Mart is $1.03, $0.01 higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Although Wal-Mart has recovered somewhat from its massive slide in 2015, the company faces difficulty in the rocky retail market environment. Fierce competition from Amazon (AMZN) has hurt profitability, and just last week Wal-Mart announced a deal to buy Jet.com for $3.3 billion in a bid to expand its online presence.
Furthermore, Wal-Mart will see a dip in profitability due to labor costs. In late January, the company announced that it would raise minimum wage to $10 for 1.2 million employees. That same month, the company announced that it too would have to close 269 stores, 154 of which are in the U.S.
Wal-Mart is also eliminating its price-matching policy in more locations. In June, the company got rid of the policy at 500 of its over 5,000 U.S. locations. It is continuing the trend, cutting the policy at another 300 locations at the beginning of August. The move is meant to give the company more autonomy over pricing, but it assures customers they are still getting the best prices for products.
Higher back-to-school spending and a growing online presence could provide Wal-Mart with some much-needed momentum, although it too has its plenty work to do.
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