It marked the 20th consecutive quarter of sales gains in the U.S. for Walmart and its 19th quarter of traffic growth on its home turf.
Walmart shares jumped more than 6% in premarket trading on the news.
Here’s what Walmart reported for the quarter ended July 31:
* Earnings per share, adjusted: $1.27
* Revenue: $130.38
* Same-store sales: up 2.8%
“Customers are responding to the improvements we’re making, the productivity loop is working, and we’re gaining market share,†CEO Doug McMillon said in prepared remarks.
Net income rose to $3.61 billion, or $1.26 per share, compared with a net loss of $861 million, or 29 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Walmart earned $1.27 a share, 5 cents better than expectations, based on Refinitiv data.
Total revenues grew 1.8% to $130.38 billion from $128.03 billion a year ago, beating expectations for sales of $130.11 billion.
In the U.S., net sales grew 2.9% to $85.20 billion from $82.82 billion a year ago.
Sales at Walmart stores in the U.S. open for at least 12 months and its website were up 2.8%, excluding fuel, beating expectations for growth of 2.1%. Walmart said transactions were up 0.6% during the quarter, compared with a 2.7% increase a year ago. The average ticket was up 2.2%, better than a 1.8% increase a year ago.
Walmart is expected to have seen a boost this quarter thanks to Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day event earlier in July, when Walmart offered similar deals to compete. Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom estimated that during the event Walmart saw about 14% of the visits that Amazon did.
Walmart said e-commerce sales were up 37% during the quarter, matching growth during the prior quarter. And the company is still calling for U.S. e-commerce sales growth of 35% for the year, which would be slightly less than what it logged in fiscal 2019.
The company said its online business has seen a boost thanks to its gradual rollout of next-day delivery across the country, which now reaches about 75% of the U.S. population. It said more than 2,700 stores now offer pickup for online grocery orders. And more than 1,100 locations offer same-day delivery for groceries.
For fiscal 2020, it’s now calling for adjusted earnings per share to range between a slight decrease to a slight increase, compared with a prior forecast that was calling for a low-single-digit percentage decline. And it said same-store sales in the U.S. should fall toward the upper end of a prior range of 2.5% to 3% growth. ■