Financial Information for Business Decisions Essay

Financial Information for Business Decisions - Essay Example The global economy has undergone a drastic change due to recession and economic slowdown in different parts of the world, so on the basis of volatile economic condition, the companies have also changed their strategies and business models to survive in the market, and retain their position among the other players. In order to identify the repercussions of turbulent economic environment, and effects industrial factors on Wal-Mart, an overall analysis of the operations of Wal-Mart over five years would be done. Further, the competitors of Wal-Mart would also be analysed to gauge the position of the company, globally, in terms of market share. The financial analysis of the company would also reveal the financial stability of the firm, which would assist in deriving a conclusion regarding the effect of financial information on the business decisions of Wal-Mart. Company Overview Wal-Mart Store, Inc. is a multinational company which was established in the year 1945 and is headquartered at Bentonville Arkansas, United States (Yahoo Finance, n.d.). It is a publicly listed company and its shares are traded in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the ticker symbol â€Å"WMT†. The company’s stocks were first traded at NYSE on August 25, 1972 (Wal-Mart, 2012a). Wall-Mart is engaged in retail or supermarket business in various formats around the world. Wal-Mart operates restaurants, retail stores, supermarkets, discount stores, hypermarkets, supercenters, apparel stores, warehouse clubs, etc. The products offered in the stores of Wal-Mart include frozen foods, meat, dairy products, bakery products, baby products, beverages, grocery items, electronic goods, household items and so on. Presently the business operations of Wal-Mart are divided into three broad segments, namely: a) the Wal-Mart International segment, b) the Wal-Mart US segment, and c) the Sam's Club segment. Retail stores of various formats are run by Wal-Mart in all the 50 states of US. Along with this it also operates its retail operations online through walmart.com. The international segment of Wal-Mart has its presence in 26 countries of the world and is also in the business of operating its retail operations in all those countries outside US. The Sam's Club segment of Wal-Mart includes membership based warehouse clubs that are operated in 47 states of US along with Puerto Rico (Wal-Mart, 2012b). The US business segment of Wal-Mart operates its business activities which are divided into six strategic merchandise units. They are: a) Grocery, b) Entertainment, c) Hardlines, d) Health and wellness, e) Apparel, and f) Home. All these six merchandise units offer different categories of merchandise products through its various types of retail stores located in different parts of US. In the recently published Fortune-500 list Wal-Mart has been ranked second, just after Exxon Mobil. Business Model Analysis of Wal-Mart After getting an overview regarding the operations of Wal- Mart, its business model would be studied in a comprehensive manner in this section. The current business model would be scrutinized and the changes that have taken place in the last five