Walmart Full Dividend History & Analysis (WMT)

Walmart is a global leader in retail and eCommerce, offering a wide range of consumer goods and services through its extensive network of physical stores.

The company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club. Walmart U.S. contributes about 69% of revenue and includes retail operations in the United States, while Walmart International contributes about 18% of revenue through its international stores and international eCommerce. Sam’s Club contributes about 13% of revenue and is a membership-based discount retailer that offers discounted prices for people interested in buying products in bulk.

WMT’s dividend yield for the last 12 months is 1.0%, which means that investors would get $10 in dividends per year for every $1,000 invested in the stock. The dividend yield is found by dividing the company’s dividend over the last twelve months, $0.80, by the stock’s share price, $79.78, which is how we arrive at a dividend yield of 1.0%.

WMT’s current dividend yield is 37.5% lower than its 5-year average:

It’s generally better to buy a stock when its dividend yield is higher than its historical average because a stock’s dividend yield rises as its share price falls.

Buying high-quality dividend stocks during periods when the dividend yield is higher than average can be an effective investing strategy.

Unfortunately, Walmart’s dividend yield is pretty low today, but its dividend growth is expected to start ramping up.

Notable Historic Dividend Yields:

• Last fiscal year average dividend yield: 1.4%
• 3-year average dividend yield: 1.5%
• 5-year average dividend yield: 1.5%
• 10-year average dividend yield: 2.0%

 

Check out Walmart’s full dividend history >>>

• Walmart distributes its dividend on a quarterly basis, which means that it pays one quarter of its annual dividend once every three months.
• Walmart’s next ex-dividend date is on December 13th, 2024, which implies that investors who purchase shares before that date will be eligible to receive dividends on those shares on the next dividend payment date.
• Walmart’s next dividend payment date is on January 6th, 2024. This means that any long-term shareholders or new investors who buy their shares before Walmart’s next ex-dividend date of December 13th will receive dividends on their shares on January 6th.

Dividend safety is important for investors because it measures a company’s ability to continue paying and increasing dividends to shareholders without stopping or reducing dividend payments.

Cutting dividends is highly frowned upon on Wall Street, so companies will generally only reduce or cut their dividend payments if they don’t have the financial means to continue paying dividends.

That’s why it’s important to judge a company’s financial health. A business that has a high dividend safety rating has strong earnings that can support dividend payments, so there’s a low risk of the company reducing its dividends.

Payout Ratio & Earnings Analysis

• LTM Dividends per Share: $0.80
• LTM Earnings per Share: $1.93
• LTM Payout Ratio: 41.2%

Walmart has a payout ratio for the last twelve months of 41.2%, which indicates that 41.2% of its $1.93 in earnings per share were distributed as a $0.80 dividend over the last 12 months. 

Financial Health

A company with a low payout ratio below 70% typically has a strong dividend with a decreased risk of reducing its dividend. These companies retain a substantial portion of their earnings, which allows them to reinvest in the business, build financial reserves, and weather economic downturns. Since the company is retaining most of its earnings, the company has greater flexibility to maintain or even grow its dividend payments over time.

A payout ratio of 41.2% indicates that Walmart can adequately continue paying its dividend, and grow its dividend going forward.

Walmart might have a greater ability to reinvest earnings into its business as well, which is important because revenue growth is one of the main drivers of shareholder value creation.

Notable Historic Payout Ratios:

• LTM payout ratio: 41.2%
• 3-year average payout ratio: 45.6%
• 5-year average payout ratio: 44.6%
• 10-year average payout ratio: 50.3%

Check out Walmart’s complete financial statements >>>

For the next fiscal year, Wall Street analysts expect Walmart to have a dividend payout ratio of 32.8%.

This indicates that Walmart should be able to comfortably make its dividend payments for the next fiscal year.

It is worth noting that dividend safety can change over time, so it’s important to regularly monitor a company’s financial performance and dividend payment history.

Dividend growth is an important aspect of dividend investing because it means that dividends will grow over time, which helps to offset the erosive forces of inflation and boost total shareholder returns.

It also signals that a company prioritizes shareholders’ returns and shows that management has confidence that the company’s earnings will grow in the future.

The chart below shows how Walmart has grown dividends per share at a 1.9% 5-Year CAGR, which is a below average dividend growth rate:

Notable Dividend Growth Rates:

• Last Fiscal Year’s Dividend Growth: 1.8%
• 3-Year Dividend Growth: 1.8% CAGR
• 5-Year Dividend Growth: 1.9% CAGR
• 10-Year Dividend Growth: 1.9% CAGR

What truly matters for dividend investors is a company’s potential to continue growing its dividends, as this will determine whether Walmart will be a reliable dividend stock.

Grow its dividends per share at an attractive growth rate of 7.4% over the next 2 years:

View all Analyst Estimates for Walmart >>>

Walmart has increased its dividends to shareholders for 51 consecutive years.

This makes Walmart a Dividend King. Analysts expect Walmart to grow its dividends per share at an average growth rate of 5.0% over the next 2 years

This is especially impressive because Walmart is currently growing dividends at a higher rate than it has in the past 10+ years.

The dividend history graph below shows a visual record of Walmart’s dividend payments to shareholders over the past several years, and the chart below shows Walmart’s history of quarterly dividend payments: