Question

Looking at the Walmart statement of cash flow, I noticed a few significant differences between 2017 and 2018.

	2018	2017
Change in Receivables	$-1.074B	$-0.402B
Change in Inventories	$-0.140B	$1.021B
Non-cash items	$13.361B	$10.841B
Net acquisitions/ divestitures	$-0.375B	$-2.463B
Net change in investments	-------	$-1.901B
Debt issuance/retirement net	$-1.437B	$-3.591B

As an investor or advisor, what is your judgment of the changes? Positive or negative? Why?

Answer 1

As per the above cash flow statement of Walmart it seems company is not in good condition.Company is making repayment of it's debt by selling it's investments and divestitures.It seems company is not in good condition to repay it's debt by it's income and also there is reduction in the inventory of the company and subsequent increase in receivables of the company which means company is disposing it's inventory through credit sales.Also there is increase in non cash items.

As an investor or advisor my judgement will be negative because above scenarios indicates company is going through with cash crunch and financial position of company is not well.It will be difficult for the company to survive in the long run.