You are the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Walmart. This afternoon you played golf with a member of the company’s board of directors. Somewhere during the back nine, the board member enthusiastically described a recent article she had read in a leading management journal. This article noted several companies that had improved their stock price performance through effective working capital management, and the board member was intrigued. Even though Walmart was known for working capital management, she wondered if it could do even better. How was Walmart managing its working capital, and how does it compare to Costco, another company well known for working capital management?
Upon returning home, you decide to do a quick preliminary investigation using information freely available on the Internet.
1. Obtain Costco’s financial statements for the past five years from www.morningstar .com.

a. Enter the stock symbol (COST) in the box and hit “Enter.”

b. Next, click on “Financials,” then click on “All Financials Data.”

c. Select “Annual,” and export to Excel using the Export button.

d. Go back to the Web page and click “Balance Sheet” at the left of the page; repeat the download procedure for the balance sheets.

e. Copy and paste the balance sheet so that it is on the same worksheet as the income statement.
2. Following the same steps as you did for Costco, Obtain Walmart’s (WMT) financial statements for comparison from www.morningstar.com.
3. Compute the cash conversion cycle for Walmart and Costco for each of the last four years.

a. Compute the inventory days using “Cost of Revenue” as cost of goods sold and a 365-day year.

b. Compute accounts receivable days using a 365-day year.

c. Compute accounts payable days using a 365-day year.

d. Compute the cash conversion cycle for each year.
4. How has Walmart’s CCC changed over the last few years?
5. Compare Walmart’s inventory and receivables turnover ratios for the most recent year to Costco’s.

a. Compute the inventory turnover ratio as cost of revenue/inventory.

b. Compute the receivable turnover ratio as total revenue/net receivables.
6. Now assume Walmart matches Costco’s inventory and receivables turnover ratios without changing its payable days.

a. How much would Walmart’s free-cash flow change relative to its current situation?

b. What would Walmart’s CCC be in this case?
7. What are your impressions regarding Walmart’s working capital management based on this preliminary analysis? Discuss any advantages and disadvantages of attempting to match Costco’s cash conversion cycle.