Walmart said that severe weather in the United States cost the company about $0.03 in EPS and that the first-quarter tax rate was higher than expected. Excluding the impact of currency exchange rates, Walmart said revenues would have been 2.1% higher.
For the second quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, Walmart forecast EPS in a range of $1.15 to $1.25, compared with actual EPS of $1.24 in the second quarter last year. At the end of the fourth quarter, Walmart guided full-year EPS in the range of $5.10 to $5.45.
U.S. first-quarter same-store sales were down 0.1%, while same-store sales in the company’s Sam’s Club stores slipped 0.5% in the quarter. Same-store sales at the Neighborhood Market stores rose approximately 5% in the quarter, and total U.S. net sales rose 2.1%. For the current quarter, Walmart expects same-store sales to be flat.
Walmart’s new president and CEO, Doug McMillon, said:
Like other retailers in the United States, the unseasonably cold and disruptive weather negatively impacted U.S. sales and drove operating expenses higher than expected. … Walmart’s underlying business is solid, and I’m confident in our long-term strategies. We’ll continue to invest in price and enhance our service to improve sales. We remain focused on growth across the enterprise, especially in small formats like Neighborhood Market in the U.S.
The company’s stock is going to get beat up a little today on both the earnings miss and the shortfall on revenue. Walmart’s focus on the smaller format stores is going to take time to scale up. The smaller stores just will not turn over as much as the massive stores for which the company is so well-known.
Walmart shares were down about 3.1% in premarket trading, at $76.30 in a 52-week range of $71.51 to $81.37. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $81.25 before the results were announced.
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