Walmart shares close lower on Wednesday, retailer to expand home delivery services as industry competition intensifies

Walmart Inc (WMT) announced on Wednesday that it would expand its grocery home delivery services to over 100 metro areas in 2018, as it seeks to become more competitive against rival Amazon. The service is expected to be rolled out to over 40% of households in the United States by the end of this year.

Walmart shares closed lower for the second time in the past five trading sessions on Wednesday. The stock went down 0.71% ($0.63) to $87.67, after touching an intraday low at $87.50, or a price level not seen since March 8th ($87.34).

In the week ended on March 11th the shares of the retail chain lost 0.06% of their market value compared to a week ago, which marked a third consecutive period of decrease.

The stock has extended its loss to 2.60% so far during the current month, following a 15.56% slump in February. The latter has been the first monthly drop since August 2017.

For the entire past year, the shares of the NYSE-listed retailer went up 42.87% following another 12.76% surge in 2016.

Walmart said the delivery would cost $9.95, while the minimum order would be $30. At first, deliveries are to be carried out by companies such as Uber Technologies Inc, with more delivery providers being expected to be added by the end of 2018.

The move comes as an addition to Walmart’s rollout of curbside grocery pickup, which the retailer now offers at 1 200 stores. The company said the service would be introduced at 1 000 more stores in 2018.

Walmart also said the services expansion would allow it to better compete with Amazon’s 2-hour Prime Now service offered to loyalty program customers.

Reuters reminded that in February Amazon had also extended food delivery options from Whole Foods in 6 metro areas.

According to CNN Money, the 30 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Walmart Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $108.00, with a high estimate of $126.00 and a low estimate of $72.00. The median estimate is a 23.19% surge compared to the closing price of $87.67 on March 14th.

The same media also reported that 16 out of 33 surveyed investment analysts had rated Walmart Inc’s stock as “Hold”, while 15 – as “Buy”.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, todays levels of importance for the Walmart stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $87.81
R2 – $87.94
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $88.08
R4 (Long Breakout) – $88.48
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $88.96
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $89.15

S1 – $87.53
S2 – $87.40
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $87.26
S4 (Short Breakout) – $86.86
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $86.38
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $86.19

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Walmart Inc (WMT) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $88.85
R1 – $90.37
R2 – $92.02
R3 – $93.54
R4 – $95.06

S1 – $87.20
S2 – $85.68
S3 – $84.03
S4 – $82.38