A Walmart sign outside a store in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
Paul Weaver | Light Rocket | Getty Images
Walmart The company will report earnings before the bell on Tuesday as inflation eases and the holiday season heats up.
According to a survey of analysts by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the discounter is expected to report the following in its fiscal third quarter:
- Earnings per share: 53 cents
- income: $167.72 billion
The largest U.S. retailers will report their latest sales results and give Wall Street a read on the U.S. consumer as investors gauge consumer confidence and weigh prospects for the year’s most critical shopping season.
Retailers, including Walmart, are facing a variety of factors this holiday season. Inflation eased as natural gas prices fell and grocery inflation slowed. Concerns about the lengthy process of determining the winner of the U.S. presidential race never materialized.
However, President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on imports from China and other countries has raised new concerns about rising prices again. There are also shorter holidays this year and unseasonably warm weather in parts of the U.S., two factors that could hurt retailers.
Holiday spending is expected to increase this year, but not by much. The National Retail Federation, a retail trade group, said it expects holiday spending in November and December to increase 2.5% to 3.5% from 2023, to between $979.5 billion and $989 billion. That would be below the 3.9% annual increase in the 2022-2023 holiday season, when spending totaled $955.6 billion.
Walmart has benefited from its large grocery business and growing online sales. The company raised its full-year forecast in August and said it expected full-year sales to grow 3.75% to 4.75% and adjusted earnings per share to be between $2.35 and $2.43. Even so, its third-quarter adjusted earnings per share outlook was between 51 cents and 52 cents, still lower than investors expected at the time.
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