Walmart whipsawed in early trading after reporting a quarterly earnings beat but issuing full-year guidance that was below consensus forecasts.
For the three-month period ended January 31, however, Walmart reported results above Wall Street’s expectations:
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Adjusted earnings per share of $0.74, compared to the $0.73 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.
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Revenue at $190.7 billion, compared to the $190.5 billion analysts were penciling in.
For its current fiscal year, the company expects:
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Adjusted EPS to hit between $2.75 and $2.85, less than the $2.97 analysts are expecting.
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Sales to increase 3.5% to 4.5% year over year. Analysts had been forecasting about 5% annual revenue growth.
Shares fell by about 3% in premarket trading but turned green and had gained about 2% by 10 a.m. ET.
This marks the company’s first earnings report under CEO John Furner, a company veteran who assumed the role on February 1. Walmart executives said the company issued conservative full-year guidance because it wants to remain cautious amid an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, noting subdued consumer sentiment and reduced hiring.
“Our goal is to outperform this guidance, but we believe it’s prudent to start the year with a level of conservatism given the backdrop is still somewhat unstable,” CFO John Rainey told analysts.
DA Davidson analyst Michael Baker observed that Walmart has had a habit of sandbagging its guidance, which increases management’s odds of ultimately exceeding that outlook.
“The 2026 and 1Q guidance are both below the Street, but we are not overly concerned about that as we suspect that WMT wants to set a beatable bar,” he wrote. “It’s not surprising that Walmart sets a lower bar for a new CEO.”
Expectations were high leading up to this release. The retail giant, which is up more than 13% since the start of the year, recently became the third non-tech company to hit a $1 trillion valuation.
Investors will be hoping this is not déjà vu all over again: in 2025, the retailer’s soft full-year guidance marked a peak for the S&P 500 and kicked off a momentum stock meltdown.
Walmart reported revenue of $713.2 billion for the full year, just below Amazon’s $716.9 billion, making it the first time the Bentonville-based retailer has trailed its online-native rival on annual sales. Both retail giants have other revenue streams.
