Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT reported early Thursday morning top- and bottom-line beats in its second-quarter earnings report but failed to impress investors with its guidance.
Shares of Wal-Mart were trading lower by around 2.50 percent after the company said it earned $1.08 per share in the quarter on revenue of $123.4 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.07 per share on revenue of $122.8 billion.
Total revenue for the quarter rose by 2.1 percent — 2.9 percent on a constant currency basis. By segment, sales of Walmart U.S. rose 3.3 percent from a year ago to $78.738 billion, Walmart International sales fell 1.0 percent to $28.331 billion and Sam's Club sales rose 2.3 percent to $14.880 billion.
The retailer's U.S. comp sales rose 1.8 percent, marking the twelfth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales at Walmart U.S. benefited from a 60-percent growth in net sales and 67-percent growth in GMV (gross merchandise value).
Free cash flow for the quarter dipped by $3.375 billion from a year ago to $6.937 billion while the company returned $1.539 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and bought $2.262 billion worth of its own stock during the quarter.
Looking forward, Walmart guided its third-quarter earnings per share to be in a range of 90–98 cents while analysts were modeling the company to earn 98 cents per share. For the full fiscal year 2018, the company guided its earnings per share to be $4.30–$4.40 versus expectations of $4.37 per share.
"Our customers are responding to the improvements in stores and online, and our results reflect this," said Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart. "Traffic increases at store level and the e-commerce growth rate are key highlights. We are moving faster and becoming more creative as we strive to make every day easier for busy families."
In Thursday's pre-market session, shares were down 2.93 percent at $78.61 at time of publication.
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