(Reuters) – Walmart on Thursday raised its full-year forecast and beat sales estimates for its second quarter, thanks to the U.S. retail giant’s ability to offer low prices across a wide range of products.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the title Walmart rose 3% in pre-market transactions.
Sales at Walmart’s U.S. stores that have been open for at least a year, excluding fuel, rose 6.4% in the quarter to the end of July, beating Refinitiv’s consensus of a 4.44% rise.
“Food is a strong point, but we are also encouraged by our results in general merchandise versus our expectations at the start of the quarter,” CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement.
Walmart is also benefiting from lower supply chain costs and fewer discounts that had been put in place to reduce excess inventory.
“We are well positioned on the inventory side and appreciate our position for the second half of the year,” said Doug McMillon.
Walmart said second-quarter gross margin rate increased 50 basis points from an 18-basis point decline in the first quarter.
The group now expects earnings per share for the 2023-2024 financial year to be between $6.36 and $6.46, compared to $6.10 to $6.20 previously, and has also forecast higher earnings. net sales about 4% to 4.5%, versus a previously expected 3.5% rise.
Competitor Target beat quarterly earnings estimates on Wednesday but lowered its annual targets.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bangalore and by Siddharth Cavale in New York; French version Augustin Turpin, editing by Blandine Hénault)
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