Retail Earnings Spotlight This Week: Walmart

One of the many big-name retailers reporting earnings this week is Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT). The company will announce its second-quarter results before the open on Thursday, August 21, with Zacks Research anticipating earnings of 73 cents per share on revenue of $175.51 billion, a year-over-year increase of 9% and 3.6%, respectively. 

WMT was last seen up 0.8% at $101.51, sporting a 12.3% year-to-date lead -- heavily outperforming Target's (TGT) year-to-date loss of 22.3% and both Costco (COST) and Amazon's (AMZN) smaller year-to-date gains. 

Earlier this month, Walmart stock broke above resistance at the $100 level that had been in place since February. This week, that level appears to have flipped into support as the stock stages a bounce off a short-term pullback. 

The security has a mixed history of post-earnings reactions, averaging a 4.6% swing, regardless of direction, including a 6.6% jump last August. According to Trade-Alert, traders are anticipating a 6.9% move this Thursday. 

Options traders have been more bullish than usual in the weeks leading up to the earnings event. WMT's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.07 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 94% of readings from the past year.