Financial Analysis Of Walmart

Founded in 1901, Walgreens goal is to be consumers’ first choice for health and daily living across the nation, and a central part of people’s lives and the communities where they live and work. The company provides the most convenient, multi-channel access to goods and services, and pharmacy, health and wellness services while developing a new customer experience. Walgreens is the largest drug retailing chain in the United States as of 2012. A fiscal year for Walgreens end on August 31st, all of the measures are from either fiscal year 2012 or 2011.

A snapshot of the Net Margins for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shown below: Net Margin Wal-Mart 2010 3.90% 2011 3.50% 2012 3.60%

Wal-Mart is a brand that is well known around the world, especially in the USA. It has gradually developed into the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart’s globalization efforts have been happening rapidly. But have they been successful in all aspects of their international expansion or not? This is the main thought that is going to be discussed in this essay. The questions I will be looking at are based on a case called “Wal-Mart takes on the world” from the book of International Business The Challenge of Global Competition eleventh edition – Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor, and McNett. Questions are the following:

As the world’s largest retail store in the world, Walmart wants to be in every market that they can be prosperous in. They know they rule the United States market, so why not try to expand overseas and dominate those markets as well. Now that they have reached limits on expansion here in the U.S., the next step was to test the water in other nations. As they began to go international, there were many critics saying they will never make it because their business practices and culture wouldn’t work in other countries. Yet the company’s globalization efforts progressed at a rapid pace. Its more than 4,263 international retail units employ more than 660,000

Within less than 30 years, Wal-Mart had transformed from a small rural retailer in Arkansas into the largest retailer in the U.S. In order to continue this rapid growth, the company had started to pursue international expansion grounded in the belief that the firm’s business model of offering quality products at low prices and great customer service would appeal to consumers everywhere around the world (p.8)[1]. China was of particular interest in going international as Wal-Mart’s top management held the opinion that it was the only market in which the firm’s success story in the U.S. could be repeated (p.2/8). However, in 2005 (nine years after its

The Wal-Mart company was established on July 2, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (History Timeline). The company was based on the vision of Sam Walton, who believed in giving his customers the lowest prices, anytime, anywhere. By 1967 the Walton family owned 27 different stores, and in 1969 they officially incorporated, becoming Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Just a year later in 1970 Wal-Mart went National, proving the wide spread appeal of Sam Walton's beliefs (History). This same year Wal-Mart became a publicly traded company, with its first shares priced at 16.50. A short year later the company was listed in The New York Stock Exchange (History Timeline). The 80's were a major success for this company. In 1983 the first Sams Club opened, this was and still is a store that sells product in bulk to small businesses and individuals. In 1988 the first Wal-Mart Super center opened. The Super center combined a full scale supermarket with general merchandise to create one stop shopping convenience (History). In 1992 the company suffered a hard hit when Sam Walton passed away at the age of 74. Although they lost the man at the heart of the company they were determined to carry on with his vision, and so they did. In 1996 they opened their first stores in China (History Timeline). By 2002 they reach the top of the Fortune 500 ranking of Americas largest companies. In 2012 Wal-Mart celebrated 50 successful years of business. Today the company employs 2.2 million associates worldwide and serves

Market Development. Walmart uses market development as its secondary intensive strategy for growth. This intensive growth strategy involves entering new markets to sell to consumers other than those that the company currently has.

Retail industry has gradually become the second largest industry, in terms of employment rates and establishments in the united states, it is the leading industry.it is estimated to be generating approximate of $5 billion annually in retail sales. For example, Wal-Mart is the leading retail shop in the world. It has an annual income of $312 billion and has a workforce of around 1.3 million in the united states and internationally it has more than 400,000 associates. It is an international corporation that was established in 1962. It controls a larger market of the retail industry, this is by their widespread chain of grocery stores, supermarkets and department stores.

The organization that I have chosen for the purpose of this corporate finance analysis is Wal-Mart. As is well known, Wal-Mart is the global market leader of

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

Wal-Mart is the number one retailer in the world in both sales and earnings, dwarfing many of its retail competitors. It offers a full assortment of products ranging from clothing to electronics. It currently has 6000 locations predominately within the United States with over $312.4 Billion in net sales during 2006. In addition to its strong domestic presence, Wal-Mart has expanded aggressively to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico with over 1000 locations within those countries. This expansion can potentially create greater economies of scale for Wal-Mart services and merchandise. The synergies created by expansion will also drive profitability in the future by providing goods and services at even lower costs to consumers. In order to enter foreign markets successful, Wal-Mart engages in both joint ventures and acquisitions. By utilizing this method, Wal-Mart intends to leverage foreign retailer's market knowledge with its own core competencies of merchandising and supply chain management (Stilgoe, 2003).

In 1962, Wal-Mart was built sometime by Sam Walton in Roger, Arkansas. Wal-Mart has 5,100 stores and clubs all over the United States and a sum of 8,300 unit's global. The company was able to employ something like over 2 million associates from all over the world and about 2.4 million in the United States. Wal-Marts average annual total income rate was somewhat in excess of 10% for the three years from the fiscal year that is ending 2009 to the fiscal year ending 2011 (Blanchard, 2008). Research shows that they also had what was known as a stock split of 100 %; Wal-Mart was able to see this split 12 times all through the eras of 1973 through 2002. They have received many awards and were categorized 5th in Fortune magazine's "Global Most Well-regarded All-Stars" as the third most appreciated corporation in America (Wal-Mart, 2013)

To test the assumption of a discount rate of 7% as given in the outline of the case, we calculated the required rate of return for the Wal-Mart stock using CAPM . Using rWalMart = Rf + βWalMart [E(RM) – RF], we find the required rate of return to be 7.01% and in line with the information given in the case outline.

To be the world 's largest low cost store that carries all types of merchandise for all possible consumers.

At the first, Wal-Mart only operates his business at one country. However, Wal- Mart became more integrated and independent by expanding to the international. In 1991 Wal-Mart start expends the business at international by level which includes 26 countries outside of the United State such as Mexico, China and Canada. Now, Wal-mart totally has more than 6100 stores at international. This is the step take by Wal-Mart to improve and maintain their achievement outside of the home country. Wal-Mart’s strategy expends their market at international level give a lot of benefit to their business.