[Reuters] – China’s Ministry of Commerce has removed restrictions on Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s deal in 2012 to raise its stake in online supermarket Yihaodian, and said the move would not impact the already competitive market. Entry barriers for China’s value-added telecommunication services have eased since 2014, facilitating the entry of new competitors, the ministry said in a statement. “Under the restrictions, competitive edge of Yihaodian has been diminishing while its sales growth has been slowing,” the ministry said. Read more on this. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) , valued at $222.95B, opened at $70.85. During the trading session, WMT traded between $70.80 to $71.14 with its 52-week range being $56.30 to $74.14. Wal-Mart (WMT) shares are currently priced at 16.64x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s 7.55x earnings multiple for the same period. The company pays shareholders $2.00 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.81%. Consensus earnings for the current quarter by the 25 sell-side analysts covering the stock is an estimate of $1.02 per share, which would be $0.06 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.04 sequential increase. In looking at the bigger picture, the full-year EPS estimate of $4.27 would be a $0.32 setback when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $120.12 Billion. If reported, that would be a 0.09% decrease over the year-ago quarter. Recently, Jefferies upgraded WMT from Hold to Buy (Jun 6, 2016). Previously, RBC Capital Mkts Initiated WMT at to Underperform. The average price target for WMT shares is $69.11, which is 2.46% below where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:WMT) Similar Articles: Stock Update: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) – U.S. court shoots down Puerto Rico tax on Wal-Mart Stock Update (NYSE:WMT): Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to participate at the Bank of America 2016 Consumer & Retail Conference Stock Update (NYSE:WMT): Wal-Mart closed over 10 pct of Brazil stores in restructuring – sources