Walmart dropped a further 3.0% today to $57.77.
Walmart, today, during trading hours, released a statement on this matter. To me the statement is very weak in that it was not delivered by the CEO or Chairman. It points to the excuse that these matters were from six years ago and basically says the audit committee is looking into this.
The stock may start to recover if and when more concrete action is seen from the Board. The main executive involved is scheduled to retire in July. At the least he should be sent packing right now. Also I don’t know why any company would keep a former CEO on the Board (because they will often tend to try to still act like a CEO). Former CEO Lee Scott who is on the board should be sent packing as well because he was CEO at the time of the allegations and apparently swept them under the rug at that time. Current CEO Duke also probably has to go because he was involved in the sweeping up as well.
I added a little to my position in Walmart today because I don’t think this matter has long term impacts on Walmart’s profitability or growth. They can deal with it and move on.
In other news, corporate earnings are continuing to come in higher than expected. In particular Apple reported very stron results after the close and this should push markets higher tomorrow (all else equal).