Dividend Kings and Aristocrats List: 10 Biggest Stocks

3. Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

Market Cap as of January 28: $386 billion

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is an American multinational retailer that operates grocery stores, supermarkets, and a chain of departmental stores. Tigress Financial upgraded the stock to Buy in January, with a $176 price target, up from $170. The firm appreciated the company’s expansion, higher-margin growth business, and ongoing dividend increases.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has been rewarding shareholders with increased dividends for the past 49 years. It currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.56%, as of January 28.

In the third quarter of 2022, Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) reported an 8.8% year-over-year growth in its revenue at $152.8 billion. The company’s shareholder return amounted to $1.5 billion during the first nine months of 2022.

As of the end of Q3 2022, 68 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), compared with 67 in the previous quarter. The collective value of stakes owned by these hedge funds is over $4.08 billion.

Leaven Partners mentioned Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) in its Q3 2022 investor letter. Here is what the firm has to say:

“In our last quarterly letter, I briefly mentioned that the consensus estimates for corporate profits appeared to be a bit too sanguine. I referenced a Reuters article that reported, as of June 17, Wall Street expected S&P 500 earnings to grow by 9.6% in 2022, which was up from 8.8% in April and from 8.4% in January. That tune began to change at the end of July and accelerated in August and September, as major players, such as Walmart (NYSE:WMT), has recently issued profit warnings and/or have withdrawn guidance. In response, Wall Street has altered its outlook: lowering third-quarter profit growth to 4.6%^[2] from 7.2% in early August and slashing full-year profit growth to 4.5%.”