The retail giant’s overall positive earnings report, which was released during yesterday’s premarket trading session, supported the optimistic outlook in the US stock market, as the Dow Jones registered a third consecutive day of going higher. Walmart's earnings report, combined with the strong performances of Cisco and NVIDIA, sent the index soaring with more than 300 points since this Tuesday, which corrected some of the losses that were registered last week following Donald Trump's rhetorical onslaught on his Twitter account, which was targeted against China.
Walmart Inc. reported EPS of $1.33, which greatly exceeds the company’s performance for the same period last year when the EPS was reported at only 72 cents.
In its press release, the company also reported that they are currently experiencing the best Q1 sales performance (3.4%) in nine years and also, that it marks a fourth consecutive quarter of sales averaging above 3%. Walmart’s continued positive performance adds up to a noticeable and enduring uptrend in the US retail sector, which is currently enjoying a period of sustained growth and expanse.
The President and CEO of Walmart, Doug McMillon had this to say in the company’s post-release statement[source]
“We’re changing to enable more innovation, speed and productivity, and we’re seeing it in our results. We’re especially pleased with the combination of comparable sales growth from stores and eCommerce in the US."
The revenue rose with 1% from $122.7 billion in the previous quarter to $123.9 billion, which came in short from the initial forecasts of $125.3 billion. Hence, despite the sweepingly positive earnings report, the rise in the share price was hampered to a degree by the market’s more optimistic expectations.
Walmart’s shares opened Thursday’s trading session with a gap from Wednesday’s closing price of 99.88 to 102.83. During the intraday trading, the share price reached the 103.96 resistance level, which is slightly below the 104.18 price level that was capped following the release of the previous earnings report. The price could not break above the resistance level, and it eventually bounced back to 101.31, as it was driven by investors’ disappointment from the company’s reported revenue missing the market’s initial outlook of $125.3 billion.