Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT): Today's Featured Retail Winner

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) pushed the Retail industry higher today making it today's featured retail winner. The industry as a whole closed the day down 1.2%. By the end of trading, Wal-Mart Stores rose 43 cents (0.6%) to $74.05 on light volume. Throughout the day, eight million shares of Wal-Mart Stores exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 10.9 million shares. The stock ranged in a price between $72.94-$74.16 after having opened the day at $73.05 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $73.62. Other companies within the Retail industry that increased today were: Gap (GPS), up 12.8%, Kirkland's (KIRK), up 5%, Haverty Furniture Companies (HVT), up 4.8%, and Pacific Sunwear (PSUN), up 4.7%.

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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. It operates retail stores, restaurants, discount stores, supermarkets, supercenters, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, apparel stores, Sam's Clubs, and neighborhood markets, as well as walmart.com; and samsclub.com. Wal-Mart Stores has a market cap of $251.84 billion and is part of the services sector. The company has a P/E ratio of 16, equal to the average retail industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 23.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday. Currently there are 10 analysts that rate Wal-Mart Stores a buy, one analyst rates it a sell, and 11 rate it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates Wal-Mart Stores as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

• You can view the full Wal-Mart Stores Ratings Report.

On the negative front, Aeropostale (ARO), down 32.8%, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), down 14.6%, Hot Topic (HOTT), down 10.1%, and Zumiez (ZUMZ), down 10.1%, were all laggards within the retail industry with Amazon.com (AMZN) being today's retail industry laggard.

• Use our retail section to find industry-relevant news.
• Or find some new ideas from our top rated stocks lists.

For investors not wanting singular stock exposure, ETFs may be of interest. Investors who are bullish on the retail industry could consider SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) while those bearish on the retail industry could consider ProShares Ultra Sht Consumer Goods (SZK).

• Find other investment ideas from our top rated ETFs lists.

For more information on Wal-Mart Stores Inc click any of the following:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Stock Price

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Analyst Ratings

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Key Stats & Profile

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Earnings

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Ratio Comparison

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Growth Rates

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Balance Sheet

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Cash Flow

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc Income Statement