Wal-Mart Tops Profit, Misses Revenue Estimates

by Christopher Freeburn | August 16, 2012 10:34 am

[1]Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT[2]) announced on Wednesday that it earned $4.02 billion during the second quarter[3], up from $3.8 billion in the same period last year.

The world’s largest retailer recorded revenue of $114.3 billion, up 4.5% from 2011, but falling short of the $115.8 billion that Wall Street had predicted, Bloomberg noted.

EPS for the quarter was $1.18, which narrowly topped the $1.17 that analysts had forecast. Investors were not impressed. Shares of Wal-Mart slipped more than 3% in Thursday morning trading.

The company noted that a rising dollar had trimmed its overseas sales by $2.2 billion. And it estimated full-year earnings at between $4.83 and $4.93 a share. That marked an increase from earlier forecasts of between $4.72 and $4.92. Wall Street is looking for 2012 earnings of $4.93 a share.

Wal-Mart also projects current-quarter earnings between $1.04 and $1.09 a share, which is in line with analysts, who expect $1.05 a share.

Wal-Mart has been trimming prices to attract customers. Same-store U.S. sales rose 2.2%, down from the first quarter’s 2.6% increase.

Yesterday, discount retailer Target (NYSE:TGT[4]) reported flat second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts[5], and raised its outlook for the rest of the year.

Wal-Mart is part of InvestorPlace‘s Real America Index[6], a list of companies — one from each state — whose performance provides a window on the health of the U.S. economy. Wal-Mart represents the state of Arkansas[7] in the index.

Wal-Mart is also is part of InvestorPlace’s list of Dependable Dividend Stocks[8] — a list of companies that are rock-solid when it comes to preserving capital and making regular dividend payments.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/08/wal-mart-tops-profit-misses-revenue-estimates/

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