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Non-Tech : Wal-Mart -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terror who wrote (1000)	2/15/2000 6:57:00 PM
From: Magic212	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1166

ML 12 month price target $80 and rates WMT a buy... from research (sorry about the pagination) Price: $56 1/16 12 Month Price Objective: $80 Estimates (Jan) 1999A 2000E 2001E EPS: $1.27 $1.45 $1.67 P/E: 44.1x 38.7x 33.6x EPS Change (YoY): 28.2% 14.1% 15.1% Consensus EPS: $1.43 $1.69 (First Call: 11-Feb-2000) Q1 EPS (Mar): $0.25 $0.28 Cash Flow/Share: $1.41 $1.74 $2.08 Price/Cash Flow: 39.8x 32.2x 27.0x Dividend Rate: $0.21 $0.21 $0.21 Dividend Yield: 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% Opinion & Financial Data Investment Opinion: A-1-1-7 Mkt. Value / Shares Outstanding (mn): $251,092 / 4,479 Book Value/Share (Apr-1998): $5.77 Price/Book Ratio: 9.7x ROE 2000E Average: 23.7% LT Liability % of Capital: 46.3% Est. 5 Year EPS Growth: 15.0% Stock Data 52-Week Range: $70 1/4-$38 7/8 Symbol / Exchange: WMT / NYSE Options: Chicago Institutional Ownership-Spectrum: 31.1% Brokers Covering (First Call): 19 ML Industry Weightings & Ratings** Strategy; Weighting Rel. to Mkt.: Income: Overweight (07-Mar-1995) Growth: In Line (07-Mar-1995) Income & Growth: Overweight (07-Mar-1995) Capital Appreciation: Underweight (08-Dec-1994) Market Analysis; Technical Rating: Below Average (29-Nov-1999) Intermediate term opinion last changed on 08-Nov-1999. The views expressed are those of the macro department and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Fundamental analyst. For full investment opinion definitions, see footnotes. According to our analysis, WalMart?s operational health remains ?Robust,? our top diagnosis: Healthy Vital Signs: * Growth in supercenter square footage and improving supercenter margins is the driving force behind WalMart?s operational health Comps of 7.6% over the last twelve months among industry leaders * SG&A ratio remains well below industry avg. * Gross margin continues to improve due to (1) mix changes between divisions and in-store product mix, (2) effect of price roll-backs of high gross items, and (3) improvements in shrink and markdown * WMT widening its industry leadership in sales productivity as supercenters drive increased traffic * Expect inventory turnover and yield to continue outpacing the industry average as inventory management remains a key focus * EBITDA ROI, depressed temporarily by acquisition of Asda, should resume upward trend in second half of 2000 * Our price objective is $80, 48x 2001 EPS multiple versus 39x 2000 EPS