[Mase]

You forgot the only figure that really matters in business today. Costco shares up 10% over the last year, Walmart shares down 5%.

Lots of reasons for this:

1. Hostility in some spots to Wal-Mart's inexorable expansion.
2. A slew of employee lawsuits, notably one claiming discrimination against 1.6 million women. Wal-Mart denies that but warns that the suit could lead to material, unestimatable losses.

This kind of uncertainty is what hurts their share price since EPS was up almost 19% last year. Their balance sheet is solid and their earnings power is unmatched in the industry. They also have huge piles of cash.

Capital spending eats up $.86 of every dollar of cash flow as they continue to rapidly expand. When capital projects start accounting for a smaller portion of cash flow, leaving more for the dividends, buybacks, and debt repayments their share price will increase dramatically.

[Non-Sequitur]

This kind of uncertainty is what hurts their share price since EPS was up almost 19% last year. Their balance sheet is solid and their earnings power is unmatched in the industry. They also have huge piles of cash.

And their stock price is down roughly 20% over the last 5 years while Costco is up by almost 1/3rd. Whatever Costco is doing, the market seems to like it more than whatever Walmart is doing.