Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 20, 2015

Article Excerpt

WAL-MART STORES INC., $84.30, New York symbol WMT, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings this week. However, the stock fell 2% as sales missed the consensus forecast. The company also plans to boost its U.S. workers’ pay. In the fourth quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended January 31, 2015, Wal-Mart’s earnings rose 14.2%, to $5.2 billion, or $1.53 a share. A year earlier, it earned $4.5 billion, or $1.34. Without unusual items, such as costs to close some less profitable stores in Japan, the company’s earnings rose 0.6%, to $1.61 a share from $1.60. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.54. Overall sales gained 1.4%, to $131.6 billion from $129.7 billion, but that missed the consensus forecast of $132.4 billion. Sales at the company’s U.S. stores, which supply 61% of the total, rose 4.1%, while same-store sales gained 1.5%. That’s partly due to rising revenue from the company’s websites, which accounted for 0.3% of the same-store sales increase. The international outlets (28% of total revenue)…