Critical Issue
The critical issue is to develop new sources for future company growth.
Despite the fact that the company increased dividends every year since 1974 and returning significant value to its shareholders through a stock repurchase program, they still looked to Wal-Mart for significant growth. Through the years Wal-Mart managed to keep the same growth rate for sales and net income, but the nominal sales growth has been on decline since the 70s.
The estimates show that nearly 69% of the stock price is attributed to growth options rather than assets. This puts incredible pressure on the top executives at Wal-Mart to push for continuously rapid growth rate in order to preserve the market value of the company.
Wal-Mart’s core business is of discounting general merchandise and food in the US but a glance at the US sales in Exhibit 1 shows stagnant sales of traditional discount stores in the 90s and declining number of stores. Industry expectations are at about 10% rate......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1414
Approximate Pages: 6 (260 words per double-spaced page) |