Wal-Mart (WMT) shares fell 0.5% in morning trading, even though the company told investors on Wednesday that its U.S. stores have reversed their trend of negative same-store sales. That would reverse an eight-quarter trend of falling same-store sales in the U.S.
The company also said it will hold expenses down, keeping capital expenditures at $13 billion to $14 billion both this year and next year, even though Wal-Mart plans to grow square footage by 4% to 5%. The company also said it plans to lower SG&A expense by 100 basis points over the next five years.
But the market appears to be shrugging off the news, rising just 0.9% on Wednesday and trading flat today. Shares are up 4.2% in the past five days. But for the year, the company’s shares are up just 1.9%. And this year, the company has raised its dividend and announced plans to buy back $15 billion worth of shares this year.
So, are investors waiting to see more, or is this stock simply dead money? Michael Kahn, for one, argues that the stock is actually beginning to break� out from a technical perspective.
(Update: this post initially said incorrectly that Wal-Mart had released the news after the market closed on Wednesday.)
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