Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 21, 2025

Article Excerpt

WALMART INC., $94.78, New York symbol WMT, is a buy. The company is the world’s biggest retailer, with 10,771 outlets in 19 countries. Walmart reported strong-than-expected results for its latest quarter. However, a weaker-than-expected forecast caused the stock to fall 8%. In the fiscal 2025 fourth quarter, ended January 31, 2025, sales rose 4.1%, to $180.55 billion from $173.39 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $180.01 billion. Walmart’s U.S. same-store sales (including online) rose 4.6%. That was due to a higher number of transactions (up 2.8%) and higher selling prices (up 1.8%). As well, U.S. online sales improved 16% while advertising revenue jumped 29%. If you factor out gains and losses on investments and other unusual items, earnings per share rose 10.0%, to $0.66 from $0.60. That also topped the consensus estimate of $0.64 a share. Walmart now expects its sales in fiscal 2026 (excluding businesses it recently sold and currency rate fluctuations) to rise between 3.0% and 4.0%. That missed the…