News

Walmart earnings expectations not as robust mid year

Investments pressuring earnings expectations.

August 18, 2015

Walmart is citing needed investments and a less than robust economy for why it’s pulling back on its annual earnings guidance and the reason its shares are down 16 percent this year.

"Even if it's not as fast as we would like, the fundamentals of serving our customers are consistently improving," said CEO Doug McMillon in a news release. "In this case, our desired changes require investments, which are pressuring earnings this year."

As Retail Customer Experience reported early this summer, Walmart has embarked on a strategy to eliminate bureaucracy within its retail operations, be more nimble and improve the customer store experience.

Walmart is now predicting earnings of $4.40 to $4.70 a share, a bit of a dip from its previous expectation of $4.70 to $5.05, and says a 15-cents-a share drop is due to currency fluctuations.

But the softened forecast hasn’t stalled any store improvement efforts and there was a minor boost in same-store sales of 1.5 percent.

Total revenue was $120.2 billion, with ecommerce sales showing a robust trend with 16 percent growth.

The retailer’s 11,532 stores in 28 countries are serving nearly 260 million customers, according to the release.