Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, August 19, 2022

Article Excerpt

WALMART INC., $136.97, New York symbol WMT, is a buy. The company is the world’s biggest retailer, with 10,585 outlets in 24 countries. Walmart reported better-than-expected quarterly results this week, mainly because it increased selling prices to offset rising costs for products, fuel and labour. In the fiscal 2023 second quarter, ended July 31, 2022, sales rose 8.4%, to $152.86 billion from $141.05 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $150.0 billion. Walmart’s U.S. same-store sales (including online) rose 6.5% reflecting higher selling prices (up 5.5%) and the number of transactions (up 1.0%). U.S. online sales also improved 12%. If you factor out unusual items, earnings per share fell 0.6%, to $1.77 from $1.78. That’s because customers are shifting to lower-priced, less-profitable products. Even so, the latest earnings easily topped the consensus estimate of $1.60 a share. The retail giant now expects its sales for all of fiscal 2023 will rise about 5.5%. However, rising costs will cut earnings per share by 8%…