walmart announced Thursday that sales rose nearly 6% in the holiday quarter and quarterly profit and revenue beat Wall Street expectations, as growth in e-commerce, advertising and third-party markets boosted the company’s results.
For the full year, Walmart said it expects net sales to increase 3.5% to 4.5% and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.75 to $2.85. The profit outlook was below Wall Street’s expectations of $2.96 per share, LSEG said.
Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said in an interview with CNBC that fast delivery from stores is helping Walmart attract more shoppers, especially those with higher incomes.
“Our ability to serve customers at our historical scale and our current speed has led to continued market share growth,” he said. “These market share gains are occurring across all income groups, but are consistent with last quarter, the past several quarters, and are particularly pronounced among higher income groups.”
Rainey also said consumer price increases caused by inflation and President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes should ease in the coming months. He said Walmart’s food inflation rate was just above 1% in the fourth quarter, but general merchandise was slightly higher.
“The price environment seems to be normalizing a bit more,” he said. “I think we, primarily as a retail industry, have been absorbing or bearing the brunt of the impact of tariffs.”
Here’s how major retailers reported in their fiscal fourth quarter compared to Wall Street expectations, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG.
Earnings per share: 74 cents adjusted, 73 cents expected; Revenue: $190.66 billion, $190.43 billion expected.
Walmart’s net income for the three months ended Jan. 31 fell to $4.24 billion, or 53 cents a share, from $5.25 billion, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier.
Walmart’s adjusted earnings per share, which exclude one-time items such as investment gains and losses, legal settlements and restructuring, were 74 cents.
Sales increased from $180.55 billion in the same period last year.
In the fourth quarter, sales excluding fuel were up 4.6% for Walmart’s U.S. business and 4% for Sam’s Club compared to the same period last year. The industry metric, also known as same-store sales, includes sales at stores and clubs that have been open for at least one year.
Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce sales increased 27% year-over-year, driven by in-store fulfillment pickup and delivery of online orders and the retailer’s third-party marketplace. This marks the company’s 15th consecutive quarter of double-digit digital profits. Global e-commerce sales increased 24% year over year.
In the company’s U.S. operations, e-commerce accounted for 23% of sales, a record high for Walmart. Digital growth in the quarter included an approximately 50% increase in in-store deliveries and an approximately 41% increase in sales from its advertising business, Walmart Connect, the company said.
Walmart’s quarterly report was the first under new CEO John Furner. Farner, a former CEO of Walmart US and a 30-year veteran of the company, was appointed CEO of Walmart on February 1, succeeding Doug McMillon.
Investors largely expect Mr. Furner to focus on similar priorities as his predecessor, Mr. McMillon, such as expanding Walmart’s online business, attracting customers from a wide range of income levels, and strengthening high-margin businesses such as third-party marketplaces and advertising.
In addition to hiring a new CEO, Walmart recently achieved other milestones. The company’s stock switched to the tech-heavy Nasdaq in December, and its market capitalization reached $1 trillion earlier this month.
As of Wednesday’s close, the company’s stock was up about 22% over the past year and about 14% so far this year. This outpaces the S&P 500’s 12% gain over the past year and less than 1% year-to-date gain.
