Wal -Mart essay

    Walmart is a retail store. It sell products that the average United States citizen needs for his or her day to day trips. Wal –Mart has many competitors in the business. The competitors include direct ones and the indirect ones. The company’s main goal is to increase sales. Increasing sales would normally result to increase profits. The company has been generating enough revenues to pay for is day to day operations(Etzel, Walker & Stanton,2001).

      Further, Wal –Mart uses the information technology including computer database programs to streamline its operations. Streamlining operations can be done if the company smoothens its operating activities from the buying of the merchandise to the selling on account and finally to collecting the accounts receivables from big clients(Fishman, 2006). The following paragraphs explain why Wal –Mart continues to be very successful.

     This success is bought taken in terms of generating profits as well as contributing to the welfare of the community where it sets up its chain of stores. Wal –Mart suffer  on economic news (http://online.wsj.com/public/us ) shows that Retail Stock have given way to generate gains after a long dry spell of gloomy and sad financial drawbacks in the stock markets. The Standard and Poor states that the Retail Index fell by two percent to 281.11despite the bad economic news stories. The Shares of Wal-Mart stores (WMT) fell by 1.7 percent from of its prior stock market price. Its current stock market price as of this writing is 54.32.

     Another December 8, 2008 Brisbane California news article entitled Walmart.com makes Tens of Thousands of Nintendo Wiis Available Online Today, shows that  Walmart.com is presently aiding mothers all over the United States  to don the Christmas responsibility of gift -giving to their children. Wal-Mart will be manufacturing tens of thousands Nintendo Wii consoles to be sold at a low price to mothers for the current 2008 Christmas season. The consoles will sell for only $249.24 a unit. The company will also sell game accessories that include Wii games for $30 a game. The Nintendo accessories can also be bought for $10 each. Walmart.com’s  president Kelly Thompson confirmed that Wal-mart will be selling the Nintendo games at a reasonably low prices. Kelly affirms that many of its clients are online internet buyers.

     The income statement (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=WMT) shows that the company generated revenues of $102,658 million for the quarter ended July 31, 2008. This is higher than the April 30, 2008 quarterly total revenue of only $95,303 million. However, the Jan 31, 2008 quarterly income statement shows that the company generated revenues of $107,428 million. The gross profits for the July 31, 2008 quarter amounts to $25,016 million. The gross profit for the April 30, 2008 quarter was lower at only $23,417 million.   The gross profits for the Jan 31, 2008 quarter amounts to $26,105 million.

      The net profits for the July 31, 2008 quarter amounts to $3,449 million. The gross profit for the April 30, 2008 quarter was lower at only $3,022 million.   The gross profit for the Jan 31, 2008 quarter amounts to $4,096, million. The key statistics of Wal  -Mart company shows that the market price to sale  is 54%. Also, the market price to book value gives a $3.30. The company’s 2008 3rd quarter data shows that the company did well despite the economic depression enveloping the entire United States. The company’s profitability ratio is 3.39 percent. Its operating margin is 5.82 percent. Its return on Assets is 8.83 percent. Its return on Equity is 21.114 percent. The company’s payout ratio is 27 percent.

     The article entitled Wal –Mart’s International Giving Touches Thousands of Communities Around the World This Holiday Season in its website

(http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081211/lath517a.html?.v=1) shows that the company is returning some of its blessings to the community where each community in all its branches around the world in the spirit of the Christmas season. The store offers associate volunteering and fundraising as part of its December 2008 Christmas activity.

     Brazil’s Wal -Mart focuses its support to help the local children’s shelter activities. This will benefit an average of ten thousand children for this month alone. The Mexico Wal –Mart is creating its unique special shops located in parking lots of 400 retail stores and. The walk –in Wal –Mart store customers and the company itself will temporarily or even permanently adopt a child for the Christmas season. The company will give food gifts to the children and the old –folks toys. Wal –Mart Puerto Rico implements its own “community initiative” to focus on the homeless.

  Wal –Mart is doing better than its competitors in the industry. The market cap of Wal –Mart is $216.01 billion. The Costco company has a Market Cap of only $22.64 billion . Another competitor, Target Corporation, has only a $29.2 billion cap. The industry cap is $1.25 billion.

The quarterly growth of Wal –Mart is 7.30 percent. The Costco company has a quarterly growth  of only 13.30 percent. Another competitor, Target Corporation, has only a quarterly growth of 1.90 percent. The industry growth rate is only 6.90 percent.

The net income of Wal –Mart is $13.59 billion. The Costco Company has a net income of only $1.28 billion. Another competitor, Target Corporation, has only a $2.63 billion net income.

      The earnings per share of Wal –Mart is $ 3.455. The Costco Company has a earnings per share of only $2.89. Another competitor, Target Corporation, has a lower  $3.318 earnings per share. The industry cap is $1.66 earnings per share.

    Money central reported that in its internet report that Wal –Mart is doing well in the stock market. Wal -Mart has a comparable store sales for the December period to be near the high end of its prior fourth quarter guidance of one percent to three percent. Wal –Mart is also opening another branch. Its new branch is the Club division which is patterned as a warehouse store. This will surely entice Hipic clients to visit the store(2008).

   Forbes has also reported that Wal –Mart will boost its image. Wal –Mart will give benefit grants amounting to over $400,000 in grants. The Wal –Mart foundation has announced that the organization that will receive the initial money grant is the State Giving Program of New Jersey. This will help the local non –profit organizations with unmet needs that are currently not noticed by other foundations or the United States government itself(2008).

     The success of the Wal –Mart concept is base on the four P’s of Marketing. The company sells products that are of high quality, The company advertises its products in the newspapers, radio and television. The company sets up a branch in any busy corner in the city across the United States and beyond its borders. The company sells its products at reasonable prices(Molloy & Molloy,1996).

   The above data show that Wal –mart is doing financially well in their line of business. The company continues to generate enough sales for the last three quarters ending July 2009 to pay for its day to day operating expenses. The company continues to generate more revenues than any of its competitors in their chain of business. The company continues to generate net profits for the past three quarters as discussed above. The company continues to generate earnings for each share of stock traded in the stock exchange. Conclusively, the success of Wal –Mart is because of its superb implementation of the four Ps of marketing.

REFERENCES:

1. Molloy, M., Molloy, M., (1996) The Buck Starts Here, Cincinnati & London, Thompson
2. Etzel, M., Walker, B., Stanton, W., (2001) Marketing, N.Y., London, Sydney, McGraw -Hill,
3. Fishman, C., 2006, The Wal –Mart Effect, N.Y., Penguin Press.
4. Wall Street Journal, retrieved Dec 11, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/public/us
5. Walmart.com Makes Tens.., retrieved Dec 11, 2008,
6.    http://markets.chron.com/chron?GUID=7371230&Page=MediaViewer&Ticker=WMT
7. Walmart Income Statement, retrieved Dec 11, 2008
8. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT
9. Business news, Retrieved Dec 11, 2008,
10.    http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081211/lath517a.html?.v=1
11. Moneycentral, retrieved December 11, 2008,
12.      http://moneycentral.msn.com/news/ticker/sigdev.aspx?Symbol=US%3awmt
13. Forbes, retrieved Dec 11, 2008
14. http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2008/11/12/prnewswire200811121117PR_NEWS_USPR_____NY45685.html
15. [?] Article Review [?]  Order Type:    Article Academic level:    Undergraduate
16. Compensation per page: $11.20 [?]   Number of pages: 5 (Double Spaced) [?]
17. Deadline: December 12 6:00 [?a]
18. Total: $56.00 [?]         Number of sources: 5 [?]        Style: APA [?]
19.    Preferred language style: English(U.S.)

Write review of Stocks that appear in business publications such as: Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, S&P.com, Morningstar.com etc.

• each page should be one article review. use 5 article review.
• put a the website or magazine that was used on each article.
• should also include..
• quick financial analysis of the past and current performance of the organization
• including quarterly reports and earnings;
• Analysis of the industry of each stock owned.