WAL-MART STORES INC. $76 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio: Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.2 billion; Market cap: $243.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) will soon let customers trade in their used video games for a credit they can use to buy other merchandise. The company will then refurbish the games and resell them in its stores.
This move should help Wal-Mart attract more customers and could spur video game console sales. As well, profit margins on used games tend to be much higher than those on new games.
Wal-Mart is a buy.