Yesterday at its annual shareholder meeting Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) came out swinging. The company is taking on a defensive posture by reducing the number of new store openings for this year and the next three years. The plan for this year alone reduces the new store openings from around 250 to 190-200, thus saving the company some $1.5 billion in capital expenditures. The next three years will see new store openings around 170 per year. The company will also raise its dividend to shareholders, and the board of directors has authorized a new-replacement share buyback program of $15 billion. This replaces the "old" $10 billion buyback program that still had $3.3 billion to go.

All in all, the moves will help stop the bleeding at Wal-Mart. The company has been the poster child for almost every social ill, from executive compensation to woeful wages and benefits allotted to its rank-and-file employees. The shares bumped up nearly 4% in active trading yesterday. The markets were looking for any positive signals from this giant retailer to reignite its poorly performing stock.

Many have surmised that the wake-up call for Wal-Mart was the April same-store sales numbers, which were the worst recorded in Wal-Mart's existence. The strategy to curtail the new store openings could be the catalyst for decent same-store sales going forward. The biggest fear an investor has with any retailer is new store openings cannibalizing existing stores within close geographic proximity. A newer concept does not suffer from this fear as market penetration is the first order of business to accelerate growth. But in the case of Wal-Mart, the "s" word -- saturation -- has been one big concern.

Continue reading Wal-Mart playing defense -- a step in the right direction

Wal-Mart playing defense -- a step in the right direction originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.