Credit Suisse Maintains Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Neutral Rating

Credit Suisse analysts Michael Exstein, Tom Roller and Christopher Su maintained their Neutral rating for shares of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), with a price target of $53.

The analysts were reviewing Wal-Mart Stores' 2009 10k when they came across some interesting information.

Usually Wal-Mart Stores quarterly conference calls discuss membership fees and other income in total but the company's 10k breaks out membership fees for different business units.

The analysts found that Sam's Clubs membership fees have stagnated over the last two years.

The Credit Suisse analysts wrote, "on the cash basis, Sam’s Club’s membership fees have been stagnant, decreasing 0.9% in 2008 and increasing only 0.4% in 2009. On the other hand, BJ’s membership fees (also on a cash basis) increased 1.0% in 2008 and 3.9% in 2009, and Costco’s membership fee (cash basis, adjusted for one time items and FX) increased 12.6% in fiscal 2008 and 5.5% in fiscal 2009."