MW Walmart's stock falls as the outlook for future profits wasn't good enough

By Tomi Kilgore

Comparable sales for Walmart U.S. stores in the latest quarter beat expectations, but Sam's Club sales missed forecasts

Walmart's stock drops after quarterly revenue from its U.S. stores and the outlook for profits this year were below Wall Street's projections.

Shares of Walmart took a hit in early Thursday trading, after the retail behemoth beat fiscal fourth-quarter profit expectations, but provided a disappointing outlook for the current quarter and the full year.

And while overall revenue for the latest quarter beat expectations, it was because strength in international sales offset misses for its U.S. businesses.

The stock $(WMT)$ slumped 3.5% in premarket trading. That puts the stock on track to open nearly 9% below last Friday's record close of $133.89.

For the current quarter, Walmart said it expects adjusted earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, between 63 cents to 65 cents.

That's up from 61 cents a year ago, but below the average analyst EPS estimate compiled by FactSet of 68 cents. For the full year, the company projects adjusted EPS of $2.75 to $2.85, while analysts were modeling for $2.97.

The company also expects full-year net sales growth in the 3.5% to 4.5% range, while the current FactSet consensus for revenue of $747.94 billion implies 5.9% growth.

For the fiscal fourth-quarter to Jan. 31, comparable sales for Walmart's U.S. stores, or sales of stores open at least a year, rose 4.6%, which beat the FactSet consensus for growth of 4.4%.

The rise in sales was a result of a 2.6% increase in the number transaction in the stores and a 2% increase in the value of the average transaction.

For Walmart's membership-based warehouse retail chain Sam's Club, comparable sales rose 4%, but that missed expectations of a 4.3% rise, as the number of transactions grew 5.3% but the average ticket declined 1.3%.

Total revenue was up 5.6% to $190.66 billion, to top expectations of $190.49 billion.

That was because international sales jumped 11.5% to $35.9 billion to beat expectations of $35.45 billion, as Walmart U.S. sales rose 4.6% to $129.2 billion but was below expectations of $129.4 billion.

And Sam's Club sales rose 2.9% to $23.8 billion, which also missed expectations of $23.97 billion.

Net income for the quarter fell 19.4% to $4.24 billion, while adjusted EPS, which excludes losses on equity and other investments, of 74 cents compared with the FactSet consensus of 73 cents.

Walmart also said it buy back up to $30 billion of stock.

Walmart's stock has rallied 21.8% over the past 12 months through Wednesday, while shares of rival Target (TGT) have dropped 11.5% and the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 12%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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February 19, 2026 07:42 ET (12:42 GMT)

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