Walmart posts Q4 earnings beat, to buy Vizio in $2.3 billion deal

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Investors are tuning into some retail dealmaking.

Walmart (WMT) confirmed it will buy smart TV maker Vizio (VZIO) on Tuesday as it posted another strong quarter of sales growth amid a slight pullback by US consumers.

America's biggest retailer reported fourth quarter results before the market open that beat Wall Street's expectations. Consumers turned to the retail chain for value over the inflationary holiday season, especially online, with e-commerce sales jumping 23% year over year to surpass $100 billion.

Shares of Walmart rose more than 5% on Tuesday in early trading after the financial update, in which the retailer raised its annual dividend by 9%.

CEO Doug McMillon said the company continued to market gain share as it improved customer shopping experiences during the "highest-volume days leading up to the holidays."

Walmart US same-store sales jumped 4% in the quarter, compared with Bloomberg consensus estimates of 3.12%. The rise was driven by more shoppers going to the store more frequently, but a slight drop in average ticket size signaled they added less to their basket.

Per Placer.ai, foot traffic at the stores dipped 1.1% in Q4 but then improved at the end of December and turned positive in January. Walmart has seen an uptick in foot traffic in recent years after consumers, particularly higher-income shoppers, began flocking to the value retailer for groceries in late 2022. Higher costs from inflation also benefited the company.

For the first quarter of Walmart's fiscal year 2025, the company expects consolidated net sales to grow in the range of 4% to 5%. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to come in between $1.48 and $1.56 on a pre-stock-split basis and $0.49 to $0.52 post-split.

Walmart previously announced a three-for-one stock split will take effect this Friday.

Walmart making further investments in digital, ads

Walmart is officially stepping up to compete with Amazon's (AMZN) surging advertising business.

The company announced plans to acquire the maker of connected TV platform Vizio for $2.3 billion, or $11.50 per share. The move should accelerate its retail media business, Walmart Connect, which grew 22% year over year in the US.

Shares of Vizio surged 16% in today's session, making it one of Yahoo Finance's top trending tickers.

That's slightly higher than the $2 billion the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

This will allow Walmart to "leverage TV viewership data" to market its products across its ecosystems. It could also offer direct e-commerce sales on the connected TV platform — a "massive opportunity" as consumers continue cord cutting — and would allow the retailer to gain additional data on its viewers and customers, Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese wrote in a client note prior to the announcement.