Wal-Mart starts Cyber Monday early

Article Excerpt

WAL-MART STORES INC. $71 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.1 billion; Market cap: $220.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) will begin offering special price discounts at its e-commerce operations on the day after U.S. Thanksgiving (Friday, November 25, 2016). That’s three days earlier than the usual start date for online holiday shopping sales, now known as “Cyber Monday.” The shift should help Wal-Mart compete with Amazon.com and other online retailers. Recent upgrades to the company’s websites load pages faster and help buyers find related products more easily. The improvements should also spur online sales. Wal-Mart is our top Conservative buy for 2016. 2016…