Wal-Mart Financial Analysis
Wal-Mart Store Inc. is a multinational retailer corporation branded as Wal-Mart in 2008. Founded in 1962, Wal-Mart has now become one of the largest American corporations with chain of retail stores. Wal-Mart sells varieties of consumer goods such as consumer electronics, toys, automobiles, furniture, video games and several other consumers goods. Presently, Wal-Mart enjoys the patronages of 200 million customers per week making the company to record the sales of $419 billion at the end of the 2011 fiscal year. Wal-Mart operates in 27 countries and records $443 billion in sales in 2012. (Wal-Mart Annual Report).
The objective of this report is to provide the financial analysis of Wal-Mart. The report uses the last 5-year financial data to perform the company financial analysis.
: Wal-Mart Financial Analysis
The paper uses last 5 years financial summary to evaluate the Wal-Mart performances. The data from Table 1 reveals that Wal-Mart has recorded healthy financial performances in the last 5 years. The company recorded $344 billions in the net sales in 2007, however in 2011, the company net sales increased to $418 billion revealing more than 21% increase in the net sales between 2007 and 2011. Despite the company increase in sales, Wal-Mart records the decline in the percentage increase in the total sales from 2007 and 2011. In 2007, the company recorded 11.6% increase in sales, however, in 2011, total percentage in the net sales declined to 3.4% as being revealed in the Fig 1. The major factor leading to the decline in the Wal-Mart sales performances was due to the global financial crisis that affected many large companies in the United States and Europe. Many companies recorded decline in the sales between 2008 and 2009 because of the global financial crunch.
Table 1: Wal-Mart Net Sales Between 2007 and 2001 ($ Million).
Operating Results
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Net sales
$418,952
$405,132
$401,087
$373,821
$344,759
% Net sales increase
3.4%
1.0%
7.3%
8.4%
11.6%
Gross profit margin
24.7%
24.9%
24.2%
24.0%
23.4%
Total assets
180,663
170,407
163,096
163,200
151,274
Source: Wal-Mart Annual Report 2011.
Fig 1: Wal-Mart Percentage Increase in Net Sales between 2007 and 2011
The paper also uses the ratio analysis to evaluate the financial strengths of Wal-Mart between 2007 and 2011.
1.1: Wal-Mart Ratio Analysis
Despite the decline in the percentage increase in the net sales between 2007 and 2011, Wal-Mart has been able to increase the total assets between 2007 and 2011. The company total assets increased from $151 billion in 2007 to $180 billion in 2011. The company ROA also increased from 7.46% in 2007 to 9.07% in 2011. Based on the ratio analysis, Wal-Mart also increased the shareholder value between 2007 and 2011. For example, the company ROE was 18.33% in 2007, however, the company ROE increased to 23.91% in 2011. (See Table 2).
Table 2: Wal-Mart Ratio Analysis between 2007 and 2011
Operating Results
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Gross profit margin
24.7%
24.9%
24.2%
24.0%
23.4%
Net Profit Margin
3.91%
3.54%
3.34%
3.40%
3.27%
Operating Profit Margin
6.10%
5.91%
5.68%
5.87%
5.94%
Return on Equity (ROE)
23.91%
20.26%
20.53%
19.70%
18.33%
Return on Asset (ROA)
9.07%
8.40%
8.20%
7.79%
7.46%
Source: Stock Analysis
Wal-Mart employs several strategies to drive up its financial capability over the last 5 years. Wal-Mart wining strategy is to sell its branded products at low prices. To offer products at low prices, Wal-Mart places higher emphasis on procurement and the company treats its customers as guests by offering discount pricing to customers.
Additionally, Wal-Mart devotes on innovation in order to offer customers with superior merchandize. With the introduction of online business, Wal-Mart is able to reach its customers at every part of the United States. Report presented by Zenith Management Consulting reveals that Wal-Mart is so successful in retail business because Wal-Mart slogan is "Always low price," and the slogan has been able to make Wal-Mart to operate efficiently. Wal-Mart statement of cash flow reveals the efficient methods that Wal-Mart has been operating its business.
"The cash flow statement provides information about a company's cash receipts and cash payments during an accounting period, showing how these cash flaws link the ending cash balance to the beginning balance shown on the company's statement of financial position. The cash flow statement consists of three parts: cash flows provided by (used in) operating activities, cash flows provided by (used in) investing activities, and cash flows provided by (used in) financing activities." (Stock Analysis P. 1).
Despite the decline in the company growth rate between 2008 and 2009, Wal-Mart has been able to demonstrate the health financial performances with reference to the company cash flow from financing activities as being revealed in Table 3.
Table 3: Wal-Mart Statement of Cash Flow between 2007 and 2011(USD$ Million).
Cash Flow
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Net cash provided by operating activities
23,643
26,249
23,147
20,354
20,209
Net cash used in investing activities
12,193
11,620
10,742
15,670
14,507
Net cash used in financing activities
12,028)
14,191)
9,918
7,134
4,839
Despite the company decline in performances between 2008 and 2009, Wal-Mart has been able to improve its financial performances at the end of the fiscal years 2010 and 2011. (See Fig 2). Typically, Wal-Mart has been able to perform better than its competitors because the company always focuses on selling quality products at low prices. Added with good customer service, Wal-Mart has demonstrated high financial performances over the years.
More importantly, Wal-Mart has been able to improve its financial performances in the last few years because the company has a strong bargaining power over its suppliers. Being a Wal-Mart supplier signifies negative consequence because Wal-Mart has been able to manipulate its suppliers to its advantages. Historically, retail stores have tried to exploit their relationship with suppliers. Typically, Wal-Mart suppliers have little power and yearly, Wal-Mart set the prices it will pay to its suppliers as well as setting the quantities each supplier must supply. Additionally, Wal-Mart reduces the price the company will pay for each item that has not undergone a significant innovation. Thus, Wal-Mart has ability to drop a supplier who could not meet the price and quantities set by Wal-Mart. Based on the strategy that Wal-Mart employ in doing its business, the company has been able to record the annual growth rate by +8.90% in the last 5 years. Typically, the company earning per share (EPS) is $4.93, and the operating profit margin increases yearly.
In the last 5 years, Wal-Mart Debt to Equity Ratio average is 0.71. The company has been able to use the debt to equity ratio to finance the company assets. Over the past 5 years, the company has recorded low debt to equity ratio because Wal-Mart shareholders have claimed the larger proportions of the company assets revealing that the company is operating at a lower risk. (See Table 4). Data from Table 4 reveals that Wal-Mart Current Ratio is 0.9 and Quick Ratio is 0.2 revealing that Wal-Mart is not as liquid as its competitors indicating that the company is aggressively investing its profits in the future development.
Table 4: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Ratios and Returns in the last 12 months
Gross Profit Margin
26.9%
EBIT Margin
6.0%
EBITDA Margin
7.8%
Pre-Tax Profit Margin
5.5%
Interest Coverage
11.3
Current Ratio
0.9
Quick Ratio
0.2
Leverage Ratio
2.9
Receivables Turnover
96.4
Inventory Turnover
7.6
Asset Turnover
2.3
Revenue to Assets
2.3
ROE from Total Operations
25.6%
Return on Invested Capital
14.9%
Return on Assets
8.8%
Debt/Common Equity Ratio
0.71
Price/Book Ratio (Price/Equity)
3.01
Book Value per Share
$19.61
Total Debt / Equity
0.88
Long-Term Debt to Total Capital
0.42
SG&A as % of Revenue
19.1%
R&D as % of Revenue
0.0%
Working Capital per Share
$-2.36
Cash per Share
$2.06
Cash Flow per Share
$7.38
Free Cash Flow per Share
$0.80
Tangible Book Value per Share
$13.65
Price/Cash Flow Ratio
8.0
Price/Free Cash Flow Ratio
73.4
Price/Tangible Book Ratio
4.32
Fig 2: Wal-Mart Financial Performances between 2007…
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