Is the business good?
How good a business is WMT?
Walmart earns 18% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
18%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 8.7 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 4.2%
Operating margin · Discount Stores median 4.5% · 12 months to Q1 2027
- Cash conversion
- 0.55×
Cash conversion · 0.72× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.65%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | 4.0% |
| FY2022 | 4.5% |
| FY2023 | 3.3% |
| FY2024 | 4.2% |
| FY2025 | 4.3% |
| FY2026 | 4.2% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 25%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 4.2%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2027
- 3.1%
- Free cash flow margin
- 1.7%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $725.3B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $12.6B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $22.7B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 18%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Discount Stores
Ranks #7 of 9 by Smart Score