Wal-Mart uses ride-sharing to drive sales

Article Excerpt

WAL-MART STORES INC. $72 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.1 billion; Market cap: $223.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.walmart.com) is testing a new home delivery service using the Uber and Lyft ride-sharing services. Under the plan, a shopper can order groceries and other merchandise online. Store employees will then fill the order, and an Uber or Lyft driver will deliver it to the customer’s home. Using a ride-sharing service lets Wal-Mart avoid the high costs of setting up its own home delivery network. As well, speeding up deliveries should help the company compete with other online retailers such as Amazon.com. Wal-Mart is our top Conservative buy for 2016. 2016…