When you study Wal-Mart stock as a potential long-term investment, there are two conflicting pieces of evidence you have to resolve: (1) The dominance of Wal-Mart’s historical returns which have been over 20% annualized since 1972 as Wal-Mart has become a mega-firm that makes just shy of $15 billion in profits per year, and (2) the history of American retail reads like the rise and fall of empires because consumer retail “loyalty” isn’t really brand affection but recognition of how efficiency leads to lower prices that save them money. When that status quo changes, people will happily move on to the next offering.
Wal-Mart stock had a rough 2015 from a stock price and business performance point of view. It lost a lot of stock value, going from a high of $91 to a low of $58 and now trading at $63 per share. From March 2, 2015 through January … Read the rest of this article!