Wal-Mart's Soft Q4 Guidance Doesn't Rock Baird Analyst's Positive View

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT reported Q3 results before market open on Thursday, and the shares ticked lower over the trading day.

Rating And Price Target

Looking past the retail giant’s mixed results and soft guidance, Baird Equity Research analyst Peter S. Benedict maintained both his Outperform rating for the retail giant and his $80 price target.

Justification

The analyst cited the following as key reasons behind his maintained rating:

• Tightly controlled inventory.
• An EPS in line with estimates.
• Accelerated e-commerce sales.
• “Respectable” comparables performance.
• Outlook.

Wal-Mart saw global e-commerce sales up 20.6 percent, compared with Q2’s 11.8 percent increase and an “even stronger growth” in the United States, according to Benedict.

“When combined with WMT's defensive appeal within a still choppy consumer/retail backdrop, we remain Outperform-rated,” said Benedict.

At time of writing, Wal-Mart shares were trading at $68.72.