Markets Continue to Venture into Record Territory: Today’s Research Reports on Lumber Liquidators and Wal-Mart Stores

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 22, 2017 /
U.S. markets continued to venture into record territory Tuesday on the strength of energy and consumer-staples stocks. Investors have been encouraged that potential tax cuts and looser financial regulations would see a boost in corporate earnings, which in turn would continue to lift markets higher, however, the Trump administration has yet to provide more details. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.58 percent to close at 20,743.00, up 4.96 percent year-to-date, while the S&P 500 Index increased 0.60 percent to close at 2,365.38, up 5.65 percent year-to-date. Consumer-staples and energy sectors were amongst the top gaining sectors in the S&P 500 Index with gains of 1.01 percent and 0.68 percent, respectively.

“Companies didn’t all of a sudden become much more profitable,” said Ron Weiner, managing director of RDM Financial Group at HighTower in Boca Raton, Florida. “The markets are filled with optimism for a number of proposals.” The 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 is now higher than 17.6, its highest level since June 2004, according to FactSet.

Let’s Take a
Closer Look at Today’s Trending Tickers

Lumber Liquidators shares spiked 17.06 percent to close at $17.98 a share on Tuesday. The stock traded between $16.45 and $18.90 on volume of 6.05 million shares traded. The company reported a loss of $5.5 million, or $0.20 a share, for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared with a loss of $19.8 million, or $0.73 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenues were $244.9 million for the fourth quarter 2016, compared to $234.8 million a year ago. Consensus estimates had called for a loss of $0.30 per share on revenues of $242.4 million, according to FactSet.

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Wal-Mart Stores’ shares gained 3.00 percent to close at $71.45 a share on Tuesday. The stock traded between $70.70 and $72.28 on volume 22.41 million shares traded. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.30 a share for the fourth quarter of 2016, topping the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.29 a share. While company reported total revenue of $130.9 billion, 1 percent increase year over year, comparable store sales in U.S. increased 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter, topping consensus estimates of 1.3 percent. Company’s E-commerce segment sales increased 29 percent year over year in the fourth quarter and it added 0.8 percentage points to the fourth quarter comparable sales gain. The company’s Board of Directors has raised its annual cash dividend for fiscal year 2018 to $2.04 a share, an increase of 2 percent when compared to 2017.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for Wal-Mart to show these kinds of numbers. We like what we’re seeing here. They’re doing all the right things,” Jan Kniffen, CEO of J.Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises, told CNBC.

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Report Click Here

Today’s Features Includes:

Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LL)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
(NYSE: WMT)

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