Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) stock rose 2.29% (As on May 16, 11:21:01 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company beat first-quarter earnings estimates but fell just short of sales expectations. In the fiscal first quarter, Walmart’s net income fell to $4.49 billion, or 56 cents per share, compared with $5.10 billion, or 63 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Comparable sales – an industry metric also known as same-store sales – jumped 4.5% for Walmart U.S. and 6.7% for Sam’s Club, excluding fuel. E-commerce sales increased 21% in the U.S., marking the 12th straight quarter of double-digit gains. Global e-commerce sales jumped 22% year over year. Average ticket, or the amount that a customer spent, rose 2.8% year over year. Customer transactions increased 1.6% compared with the year-ago period in the U.S. Yet despite the growth of purchases across Walmart’s store and website, that marked the fourth straight quarter of deceleration for the metric.
Meanwhile, Walmart is focused on keeping food prices low, but said tariffs on countries like Costa Rica, Peru and Colombia have put pressure on the prices of bananas, avocados, coffee and roses. In some cases, the company is keeping prices where they are — even if that means absorbing higher costs — such as keeping the price consistent for flowers at Sam’s Club on Mother’s Day. Plus, the discounter has grown profits faster than sales by looking beyond retail to newer business, including advertising and its subscription-based membership program Walmart+. Sales for its U.S. advertising business, Walmart Connect, increased 31% year over year in the first quarter, excluding the Vizio smart TV business that it acquired last year.
WMT in the first quarter of FY25 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 61 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 58 cents, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 2.5 percent to $165.61 billion in the first quarter of FY25, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $165.84 billion.
Looking forward, the company expects sales to grow 3% to 4% and adjusted earnings of $2.50 to $2.60 per share for the fiscal year.
Walmart said it expects net sales to increase 3.5% to 4.5% for the fiscal second quarter, but declined to provide guidance for earnings per share or operating income growth because of fluctuating U.S. tariff policy.