Walmart’s (NYSE:WMT) fiscal third-quarter earnings on Tuesday topped analysts’ expectations as price-sensitive grocery shoppers flocked to its stores amid rising costs for household staples.
The retailer’s size is helping it manage through snarled supply chains, as it negotiates with manufacturers, bulks up its inventory and charters its own ships to move goods across the globe.
Walmart raised its forecast for the year, saying adjusted earnings per share will be around $6.40 versus its prior expectations of between $6.20 and $6.35.
Walmart’s net income fell to $3.11 billion, or $1.11 per share, from $5.14 billion, or $1.80 per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $1.45 per share. Analysts were expecting Walmart would earn $1.40 per share.
Total revenue grew by about 4% to $140.53 billion from $134.7 billion a year earlier, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations of $135.60 billion.
Walmart’s same-store sales in the U.S. grew by 9.2%, excluding fuel, higher than the 6.9% expected by a StreetAccount survey.
Walmart’s e-commerce sales in the U.S. grew 8% versus the year-ago quarter — or 87% on a two-year basis.
Inflation is hitting consumers as they go about daily routines, from filling up the gas tank to stocking the refrigerator. Annual inflation rose at its fastest pace in more than three decades in September, according to the Commerce Department.
WMT shares declined $1.36 in the first hour of trading to $145.55.