A 'Blah' Earnings Day in Store for Wal-Mart

It's often said that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. But there are at least three certainties looming in Wal-Mart's (WMT) fiscal second-quarter earnings report, along with four potential events. Taken as a whole, I believe the Wal-Mart quarter is as easy to call as any I can recall --which is why we were bullish after the first-quarter report was released. As a result, there may not be a large swing in the stock either direction.

Note that, on July 30, we communicated to clients to exit the long recommendation we'd put out in mid-May, the day of the first-quarter earnings release. Although we generally expect a non-event type of earnings release, we thought it would be best to lock in gains on a slow-growth retailer valued at 14x forward earnings, a 1.82x price-to-earnings relative to growth (PEG) and a shrinking dividend yield, given the appreciation in the share price....561 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.

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