Walmart (WMT) reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as a shortened holiday season and soft demand in key consumer staples undermined sales, whipsawing its stock in pre-market trading.
Here were the main numbers compared to Bloomberg consensus forecasts:
Revenue: $141.7 billion vs. expectations of $142.55 billion
Adjusted EPS: $1.38 vs. expectations of $1.44
“We started and finished the quarter with momentum, while sales leading up to Christmas in our U.S. stores were a little softer than expected,” CEO Doug McMillon said in the earnings release.
“The new year has started off well, and we look forward to another strong year. We remain focused on providing our customers with the best omnichannel experience from any retailer,” he added.
The retail giant’s closely-followed comparable-store sales figure grew 1.9% during the quarter, driven by the strength in grocery. The retailer saw a “slight decrease” in the general merchandise category, which it attributed to weaker than usual sales in toys, games and clothes.
“We believe the compressed holiday season, softer toy industry sales, a lack of newness in gaming, and some assortment challenges in apparel contributed to the decline,” the company said in a presentation.
On the plus side, Walmart added that its grocery sales on a two-year stacked basis were “the best in the past 10 years.”
“Increased value, including higher penetration of private brands, along with our expanded omni-channel offering contributed to strength. Price investments led to modest food deflation while consumables' inflation increased modestly versus last year,” the company said.
Meanwhile, e-commerce sales grew 35% during the quarter, with online grocery contributing meaningfully to the growth. Walmart ended 2019 with 3,200 grocery pickup locations and 1,600 grocery delivery locations across its fleet of U.S. stores.
During the quarter, Walmart opened one Supercenter and remodeled 80 of its existing stores. During 2019, nearly 500 stores were remodeled, the retailer added.
The retailer also provided updated fiscal 2021 guidance in the range of $5.00 to $5.15, below estimates of $5.22, according to data from Bloomberg.
“The company continues to monitor the events in Chile and the Coronavirus outbreak and has not included any potential financial effects in its assumptions,” the retailer said.
At one point, Walmart's stock fell by more than 3%, but pared losses in volatile pre-market action. It was last trading down less than 1% from Friday’s closing level of $324.95.
Ahead of Walmart’s Investment Community Meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the big-box retailer announced that it raised its annual cash dividend for fiscal 2021 to $2.16 per share, up 2% from last year’s $2.12.
Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.