Business is a complex structure with many components that must be taken into account for it to function correctly. That is why it is essential to analyze the statistics of successful companies. It helps to prevent mistakes from being made and provides many intelligent examples. Walmart and Target have been big players in the global market for decades. The similarity between these supermarket chains’ concepts gives good soil for comparison and analysis. This work will focus on financial statistics, including their balance sheets and income statements. Items that were chosen are assets, liabilities, and equity to compare balance sheets and gross profit, operating income, and total revenues from income statements.
It is a well-known fact that even though Target Corporation is longer on the market, Walmart’s chain is more than five times bigger in terms of the number of stores. Walmart’s current assets in January 2022 report constitute more than eighty-one thousand in total (Seeking Alpha, 2022c), while Target’s current assets are less than twenty-two thousand (Seeking Alpha, 2022a). With total assets amount of almost two and a half hundred thousand, Walmart exceeds Target nearly five times in that measure (Seeking Alpha, 2022c). This item can influence investors’ choices because companies that earn a lot of money are excellent at customer service. Overly much or not enough cash can bring many questions from potential investors. Total liabilities are almost one hundred fifty-three thousand for Walmart (Seeking Alpha, 2022c) and almost forty-one thousand for Target (Seeking Alpha, 2022a). In this case, it is crucial for investors to pay attention to the gap between these liabilities and assets. Companies that have fewer liabilities than assets are more attractive to investors. It is clear that Walmart is much more captivating in this index than Target. Walmart’s liabilities are about twenty-six percent smaller than its assets (Seeking Alpha, 2022c), while Target’s gap is about sixteen percent (Seeking Alpha, 2022a).
Equity is another important factor in choosing where to invest. Additional paid-in capital is almost five thousand for Walmart and almost six and a half for Target (Seeking Alpha, 2022a), which means Walmart’s stocks are cheaper (Seeking Alpha, 2022c). However, the retained earnings are very different, with nearly eighty-seven thousand for Walmart (Seeking Alpha, 2022c) and almost seven thousand for Target (Seeking Alpha, 2022a). One of the factors that need to be considered is that more than five thousand Walmart stores are located outside the United States, including countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Chile, and South Africa. This is about half of the total number of their stores worldwide. The possibility of social or political issues in these countries has a massive impact on the choice of potential shareholders. At the same time, all Target stores are located within the US.
The last factor is the gross profit of Walmart, which equals about one hundred forty-four million dollars (Seeking Alpha, 2022d), and Target’s gross profit of thirty-one million (Seeking Alpha, 2022b). The operating income is nine thousand for Target and almost twenty-six thousand for Walmart, while total revenues are almost five hundred seventy-three thousand for Walmart (Seeking Alpha, 2022d) and one hundred and six for thousand for Target (Seeking Alpha, 2022b). Walmart and target are approximately equal in their statistics, but financial stability is a critical factor in stakes selection. Target Corporation seems like a more financially stable and less risky option, even though Walmart looks more massive.
To conclude, investments must be deliberate and calculated to remove the probability of lost money. Target and Walmart have much in common, but at the same time are different in some characteristics. Statistical data such as retained earnings, paid-in capital, the location of stores, their gross profit, and current and noncurrent assets and liabilities are crucial for understanding the right option. All these characteristics are important in investing because of their influence on companies’ future. In this case, Target Corporation is more reliable for investment than Walmart Inc.
References
Seeking Alpha. (2022a). Target Corporation annual & quarterly balance sheet [Data set]. Web.
Seeking Alpha. (2022b). Target Corporation financial income statement [Data set]. Web.
Seeking Alpha. (2022c). Walmart Inc. annual & quarterly balance sheet [Data set]. Web.
Seeking Alpha. (2022d). Walmart Inc. financial income statement[Data set]. Web.