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Retail

Wal-Mart (WMT) Defies Gravity

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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SunsetBased on Wal-Mart’s (WMT) earning for the quarter ending April 30, the world’s largest retailer did better than it was supposed to. The company reported EPS of $.77 at the highest end of the range it had set for itself. If it has not been for Wal-Mart’s international business, which carried the firm for several years, the numbers would have been even better.

In the US, Wal-Mart’s flagship stores produced revenue which rose 4% to $61.2  billion. Overseas the top line dropped 11% to $21.3 billion. Currency exchange rates hurt international results. Total revenue for the quarter was flat at $93.5 billion.

Wal-Mart said it would have earnings for the current quarter of between $.83 and $.88, an impressive figure. The company same-store sales are expected to be flat to up 3%.

It is easy to say that because of Wal-Mart’s size and reach it should outperform other retailers, but size is also a drawback. Given Wal-Mart’s huge market share, it should have no reason to defy the gravity of falling consumer spending.

Maybe everday low prices do have their advantages.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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