Wal-Mart Stores, Inc

Assignment #1: Identify a public company you would like to follow and analyze over the next three months. Write 1 paragraph identifying the company, why you have chosen it and what you expect to see when you analyze it.

For my analysis I have chosen Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The company remained in the first position of the Fortune 500 rank since 2009. Moreover, it is the leader of the statistics for the eighth time in the last decade. Wal-Mart is serving customers in 28 countries in 9600 retail stores and noticed sales of over $400 billion in 2011. From my analysis I would like to learn about the firm itself, how it is situated in its industry and how its market position affects its competitors. I will follow information about its performance over the next three months while looking into the company's financial statements and current performance on the stock exchange. In addition to that I will conduct a SWOT analysis of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to determine the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads.

During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011 (fiscal 2011), the Walmart U.S. segment accounted for 62.1% of its net sales, and operated retail stores in different formats in the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as Walmart's online retail operations, walmart.com. The International segment consists of retail operations in 14 countries. During fiscal 2011, the segment generated 26.1% of the Company's net sales. The International segment includes different formats of retail stores and restaurants, including discount stores, supercenters and Sam's Clubs that operate outside the United States. The Sam's Club segment consists of membership warehouse clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico, and the segment's online retail operations, samsclub.com. During fiscal 2011, Sam's Club accounted for 11.8% of its net sales.