Walmart Inc (WMT)

A fantastic company. Came out with earnings that were not that great a while ago. In the soft economy of the US, earnings are suffering a little bit. He still likes the company. If you are looking for this kind of stock, he would go for Dollarama (DOL-T).

Problem with Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, is that their main target customer is the most US vulnerable consumer. Other retailers cater to other parts of the retail market such as dollar stores and those above Wal-Mart.

The downturn in the stock price is simply to do with economic issues and the economic outlook. Earnings and revenue growth are slowing down. They are suffering because the demo graphic of their largest customer is not doing as well.

It was just announced that the company is cutting orders as unsold merchandise piles up in the US. US economy is not exactly swimming along at a good pace. This company is probably the premier company globally at managing inventory. If they have made a bad bet on inventory, there are others who are even worse.

The consumer has been challenged. Valuation is neither super high, nor super low. The stock could do well going forward but not necessarily so.

Extremely big company. Thinks the prospects for organic growth are fairly low. Top line growth may be 2%-3% so it really is a cost cutting story. Making sure they have the right footprints and that they are in the right markets and have brand relevancy. Not his favourite name as he thinks it is fairly valued at current levels. Would prefer Target (TGT-N).

Caller asked what to Short. He has a number of shorts. Wal-Mart because of weak numbers and free cash flow below earnings due to depreciation.

A consumer staples name that has really pulled back and this is a pretty interesting entry point. Very dominant name. 100 million people walk into a store every single week. Doing well in almost every market that they are in.

Does not like it. A lot of leverage to the low end consumer. There are any number of data point about unequal recovery from the recession for consumers. The growth drivers are not there.

It is looking doggy. It is in a trading range when the market is going to new highs. Seasonally this one doesn’t do well in the summer. Trend is no longer on the upside and not outperforming market so good time to take profits. Best time to buy is just before Christmas.

A wonderful company. This is one you could buy and still be happy. They are wonderful at buying back stock. They generate so much free cash flow. Hard to imagine how much revenue growth you are going to get going forward.

Likes this a lot. You are getting very consistent growth. You’re paying 14-15 times earnings and it is going to grow at 10% so you are paying 1.5X peg ratio. Also, they are going into emerging markets and taking advantage of the consumer getting wealthier.

Terrific company but he prefers to play US retail through Staples (SPLS-Q) which benefits from the US improving employment situation or, Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY-Q) which gives exposure to the US housing market. This one is not cheap enough to buy.

World’s largest retailer. Trades at about 13.5X forward earnings. Does a good job of generating excellent cash and does a good job of growing their dividends and this is what investors should be looking at. Expects dividend growth of 7%-8% per year. Yield of 2.5%.

Has done relatively well along with consumer discretionary stocks. When going into consumer stocks, particularly outside of Canada, she wants to see more of an international presence. This company has some but is still mainly North American based.