MBA 5008 Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data 1

MBA-FPX5008 Assessment 2

Lashawndra Arceo

School of Business, Technology, and Health Care Administration, Capella University

MBA-FPX5008 Applied Business Analytics

Professor Pamela Meares

February 21, 2023

MBA 5008 Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data 2

Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data

Walmart Inc. is America’s top retail company. The organization owns, manages, and

operates a chain of retail brick-and-mortar supermarkets and supercenters (Thomas, 2022). With

humble beginnings in 1962 as a simple neighborhood supermarket in Rogers, Arkansas, Walmart

expanded domestically before venturing out into the international market in 1991. This was

followed by rapid domestic and global expansion, supported by strategic partnerships and

acquisitions. To date, Walmart owns more than 10,000 stores and warehouse clubs in 46

different banners around the world. Walmart operates in 26 nations globally and has eCommerce

sites (Walmart Inc., 2023a).

History

Walmart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. Before being incorporated, Walmart is a

simple neighborhood supermarket that expanded to 24 stores around the state by 1967. This was

later followed by the decision to incorporate the company as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart

Inc., 2023b). In 1970, the company became a publicly traded firm which was followed by the

opening of Walmart’s first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. Before the decade

closed, Walmart opened its first pharmacy and foundation. The 1980s marked Walmart’s rapid

domestic expansion in terms of sales, operations, and corporate responsibility initiatives (Farkas,

2022). In the 1990s, Walmart was regarded as America’s top retail chain (Stanton, 2018). This

decade marked Walmart’s international expansion with its first international presence in the

Mexican market. Walmart next tapped into the Canadian, Chinese, and English markets

(Walmart Inc., 2023b).

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By the year 2000, Walmart targeted a multi-focal corporate goal. Apart from continuous

expansion in the international market, Walmart also set new environmental and sustainability

goals for the company (Walmart Inc., 2023b). In 2010, Walmart’s investments focused on

technological innovations in various areas of the business. The company also targeted new

international locations, supporting its continuous international expansion goals through mergers

and acquisitions (Pioch et al., 2009). Following the Covid-19 epidemic outbreak, Walmart

continues to focus on strengthening the company’s competitive strengths with greater emphasis

on technological investments, targeting to improve logistics capabilities and last-mile delivery

service (Pandey et al., 2021).

Purpose and Sustainability Goals

Walmart’s corporate mission is encompassed in the firm’s purpose of creating a shopping

experience and business environment that contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of

customers, employees, and the community (Walmart Inc., 2023c). The company stated that

continuously creating opportunities contributes a lot to the creation of a sustainable future,

expansion of programs for diversity and inclusion, and strengthening of community ties.

“Because at Walmart, Live Better is what we do every day” (Walmart Inc., 2023c).

Walmart has been committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of the primary

long-term targets of the company is to reach zero emissions by the year 2040. Strategies

established by the company to achieve this goal include the use of renewable energy, shifting to

battery-powered vehicles, and transitioning towards low-impact refrigerants for cooling

(Walmart Inc., 2023d). Walmart’s strongest competitive advantage lies in its supply chain

management strategies and the firm’s sustainability goals are also anchored in this facet,
MBA 5008 Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data 4

targeting to remain the top retail firm that balances retail growth with environmental protection

(Maamoun, 2020).

Graphical Representations of Data: Stock Analysis

The stock data for Walmart range from February 21, 2022, to February 21, 2023. The

stock information is taken from Yahoo Finance. Stock data labeled high pertains to the highest

stock value reported for the day (Figure 1). In this data analysis, the daily high value of the stock

is plotted on the y-axis and the date to which the stock corresponds is plotted on the x-axis. The

scatterplot for Walmart’s daily high stock price is done using MS Excel’s built-in tools for the

scatterplot. In creating a scatterplot, it is important to ensure that the right variable is plotted in

the appropriate axis, otherwise, the resulting plot will be erroneous.

Figure 1
Walmart's high stock price, February 2022 to February 2023

Note. Scatterplot prepared for Walmart’s high stock data for the year beginning February 21, 2022, ending on
February 21, 2023. Data trends indicate the highest price per share above $160 per share after March 2022. Data
points indicate price recovery from $120 per share on May 19, 2022, to about $155 per share on December 5, 2022.
Data were taken from Yahoo Finance.

Using the same process as previously mentioned, Walmart’s daily low stock price per day

for the year is also plotted in a scatter plot (Figure 2). In this scatterplot, the daily low stock

price value is plotted on the y-axis and the date variable is on the x-axis. Since the data set is
MBA 5008 Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data 5

linked to the data for Walmart’s high stock price, the trend indicated by the low stock price value

is similar to the trend from the previous scatterplot.

Figure 2
Walmart's high stock price, February 2022 to February 2023

Note. Scatterplot prepared for Walmart’s low stock data for the year beginning February 21, 2022, ending on
February 21, 2023. Data trends indicate the highest price per share above $160 per share after March 2022. Data
points indicate price recovery from $120 per share on May 19, 2022, to about $155 per share on December 5, 2022.
Data were taken from Yahoo Finance.

The next graph is a histogram of Walmart’s closing daily stock prices (Figure 3). The

process of creating a histogram for the company’s stock value data begins with identifying the

minimum or lowest and the maximum or highest values within the data set using the functions

=Min(Number1, Number 2…) and =Max(Number1, Number 2…) for these specific metrics. The

next step is setting the class intervals for frequency distribution. There are 250 points in the data

set and this is important in ensuring that all the values in the data set are accounted for. To do

this, the width of each class interval is $8 per interval. In the MS Excel tool, a histogram analysis

requires bins. Bins are values – quantitative data – that are used as representatives of each class

interval (Carr, 2008). By carefully identifying the appropriate intervals and corresponding bins

for each interval, the resulting histogram table effectively showed the distribution of data points,

helping illustrate the range of stock values within the year selected. The distribution of data

values in a histogram analysis helps determine the spread of values (Lind, 2021).
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Figure 3
Walmart stock price histogram, February 2022 to February 2023

Note. Class intervals for stock prices are equally spaced, resulting in 6 classes. Histogram showed the frequency of
stock values per group. The trend of distribution also shows that the values are distributed in a left-skewed manner.

For the histogram analysis of Walmart’s stock volume for the year selected, the process is

more extensive. Since the data values are in millions, it is important to determine the best way to

create a class interval that will account for all the data points. As such, each class interval has 9.9

units, representing 9.9 million values between the lower and higher interval values (Figure 4).

Figure 4
Walmart stock volume, February 2022 to February 2023

Note. Class intervals for stock prices are equally spaced by 9.9 million values, resulting in 6 classes. Histogram
showed the frequency of stock volume per interval. The trend of distribution also shows that the values are
distributed in a right-skewed manner.
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The bins are also carefully identified, ensuring that they will efficiently and effectively capture

the individual data for Walmart’s stock volume. The resulting histogram for Walmart’s stock

volume indicated a right-skewed distribution of values.

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics refers to the set of statistical tools used to describe data trends that

will generate sufficient data, to begin with, inferential statistics (Holmes et al., 2017). The three

most commonly used measures for descriptive statistics are the mean, median, and mode which

are known collectively as the Measures of Central Tendency. In this analysis, the values for the

mean, median, and mode are essential in identifying the best quantitative data to use as a

descriptor of Walmart’s stock value and volume for the years 2022 to 2023. These descriptive

statistics metrics are computed using the built-in functions in MS Excel. For the mean, the

statistical function is =Average(Number1, Number2…). The statistical function for the median is

=Median(Number1, Number2…), and the statistical function for the mode is =Mode(Number1,

Number2…).

  Adjusted close (US$) Stock volume

Mean 137.83 7,567,184.40
Median 139.51 6,537,950
Mode 122.37 6,745,000
SD 10.01 4,632,655.67

Another descriptive statistics tool is Standard Deviation (SD) which is a quantitative tool

for the spread of data (Holmes et al., 2017). Compared to Measures of Central Tendency, SD

specifically measures how far apart are the data points from the mean. The larger the value of

SD, the larger the spread of data points is, indicating higher variance in data value within the

data set. The process of finding the SD of a data set with a high volume of numbers can be done
MBA 5008 Assessment 2: Using Analytic Techniques to Add Meaning to Data 8

faster using MS Excel’s statistics functions. The formula used for this is =STDEV.P(Number 1,

Number 2…). This particular function calculates the SD of the data of a given population.

Data Analysis

The scatterplot prepared for Walmart’s stock data shows that in a span of one year, the

company’s high stock price is recorded between March to May of 2022 around $160 per share.

This was followed by a steep decline in valuation reaching as low as $120 per share. Beginning

the month of June 2022, Walmart’s stock price slowly increased in value from $120 to $150 per

share. Before the year 2022 ends, Walmart’s high stock price is around $155 per share. The

scatterplot also showed that on January 24, 2023, Walmart’s stock price reached $160 per share.

As mentioned, Walmart’s daily low stock price value is linked with the company’s daily high

data. Therefore, the overall distribution of the points of the two charts is nearly the same. As the

stock data ends in February of the current year, there is a trend that can be observed that the

company’s stock value. The company’s stock price tends to increase during the first quarter of

the fiscal year and it slowly declines in value in the succeeding months. The company’s stock

value then slowly increases in price as the fiscal year nears to end.

The histogram and frequency distribution for Walmart’s daily closing price indicates that

in the past year, the company’s stock price is mostly between $140 to $147 per share. The

distribution of values also showed that the price of the company’s stock ranged mostly between

$124 to $139 per share. There are also a few instances in which the company’s stock price

reached as high as $153 to $160 per share. The trend indicated by the histogram corresponds

with the trend illustrated in the scatterplots for the company’s daily low and high data sets. The

histogram also shows clearly that the majority of the time, Walmart’s stock traded at price levels

between $124 to $139 per share.

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The frequency distribution for Walmart’s stock volume, meanwhile, is important in

understanding the volume of shares traded at a particular period (Active Trader News, 2022).

The histogram for this stock variable indicates that Walmart has mostly 2 to 9.9 million shares

traded within the past year. Knowledge of stock volume is essential for investors in monitoring

stock patterns that can affect an investor’s trading strategies and techniques (Active Trader

News, 2022). This could mean that since Walmart’s stock is slowly growing in value, the

number of shares being traded in the company’s stock also varies from time to time. However, it

is difficult to ascertain how this specifically affects the company’s stock price.

Conclusion

Statistics help study the trends in Walmart’s stock data for the past year. Scatterplots,

histograms, frequency distribution, and measures of central tendency are descriptive statistics

tools used to understand the behavior of Walmart’s stock performance in terms of valuation in

the past year beginning February 21, 2022, until February 21, 2023. Scatterplots for the daily

high and low of Walmart’s stock value showed the movement of the firm’s stock price, allowing

users of financial information to identify the time at which Walmart’s stock performs well, the

highest stock price at a given time and the changes in the firm’s stock price within a year. The

histogram and frequency distribution for Walmart’s closing stock price summarized the

company’s stock data, indicating the lowest and highest values, the range, and the most typical

value of Walmart’s stock price per share for the year mentioned. Finally, the histogram and

frequency distribution for Walmart’s stock volume indicated the range and most commonly

occurring volume of stock traded by the company between February 2022 to 2023.
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