Stock Update: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) – U.S. top court rejects Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo class action appeals

[Reuters] – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected two corporate challenges in class action cases, refusing to hear bids by Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Wells Fargo & Co to throw out large judgments against them. Wal-Mart had sought to get rid of a $187 million class action judgment over the retailer’s treatment of workers in Pennsylvania. The court’s decisions on whether to hear the cases had been on hold pending its action in a separate class action case involving Tyson Foods Inc. Read more on this. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) , with a current market cap of $217.65B, started trading this morning at $69.00. Looking at today’s trading action, the company’s one day range from $68.92 to $69.37 with a trailing 52-week range being $56.30 to $81.39. WMT shares are currently priced at 16.60x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 2.82x earnings multiple for the same period. And for dividend hunters, the company pays shareholders $2.00 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.90%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 24 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $0.88 per share, which would be $0.15 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.03 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $4.16 which would be a $0.43 setback than last year’s full-year earnings. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $113.20 Billion. If realized, that would be a 1.42% decrease over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Northcoast upgraded WMT from Neutral to Buy (Nov 13, 2015). Previously, Citigroup Initiated WMT at to Neutral. The average price target for WMT shares by the analysts covering it is $64.72, which is 6.20% below where the stock opened. See more in (NYSE:WMT) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) – U.S. court shoots down Puerto Rico tax on Wal-Mart Stock Update: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) – Wal-Mart Japan to focus on remodeling stores, no plans to exit market Market Update: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to Webcast 22nd Annual Meeting for the Investment Community