How Will Wal-Mart (WMT) Stock React to Revised Black Friday Tactics?
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- In an effort to ease consumers' shopping experience, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) - Get Report rolled out new Black Friday shopping strategies.
For the first time ever, the Bentonville, AR-based retailer said it will offer 96% of its deals both online and in stores.
Online shoppers will get an early start as discounts will be offered starting at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time on Thanksgiving. Then at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Thanksgiving day, deals will be offered in stores.
Instead of making the Black Friday sales event last over five days like the company did last year, Wal-Mart will be offering all the deals at one time.
"Customers today are bombarded with different messages and different offers," Chief Merchandising Officer Steve Bratspies stated, according to the Wall Street Journal stated. "We're moving to one event to make shopping easier."
A variety of deals will be offered on items like televisions, video game consoles and small home appliances, USA Today reports.
Yesterday, retail stocks were pressured by Macy's (M) disappointing quarterly results and a weak earnings forecast. Profits topped estimates while sales missed.
Wal-Mart shares are declining 0.6% to $57.23 on Thursday.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates WAL-MART STORES INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate WAL-MART STORES INC (WMT) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, reasonable valuation levels and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and weak operating cash flow.
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
- WMT's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 3.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 0.1%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
- The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.62, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Even though the company has a strong debt-to-equity ratio, the quick ratio of 0.17 is very weak and demonstrates a lack of ability to pay short-term obligations.
- Reflecting the weaknesses we have cited, including the decline in the company's earnings per share, WMT has underperformed the S&P 500 Index, declining 24.57% from its price level of one year ago. The fact that the stock is now selling for less than others in its industry in relation to its current earnings is not reason enough to justify a buy rating at this time.
- The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500, but is less than that of the Food & Staples Retailing industry average. The net income has decreased by 15.1% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $4,093.00 million to $3,475.00 million.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: WMT