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Wal-Mart charge hurts profit; forecast maintained
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Wal-Mart charge hurts profit; forecast maintained
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported yesterday a 26 percent drop in quarterly profit ? its first earnings decline in more than 10 years ? because of a charge for selling its German stores to a rival, but it maintained its full-year profit forecast.
Lee Scott, Wal-Mart?s chief executive, said the company was disappointed with U.S. sales for the second quarter, which were up 6.9 percent at the Wal-Mart stores and up 5.0 percent at Sam?s Club warehouses. A year earlier, Wal-Mart posted a 10.4 percent sales increase at the U.S. Wal-Mart stores, and a 5.9 percent gain for Sam?s stores.
?Customers tell us that they?re most concerned about gas prices,? Scott said on a prerecorded call.
Wal-Mart, the world?s biggest retailer, caters to lower-income shoppers, who have been hit especially hard by rising gasoline prices. The average price per gallon of gasoline was $3 last week, up 45 cents from a year earlier, according to a government report released on Monday.
Net income fell to $2.08 billion, or 50 cents per share, in the second quarter that ended July 31, from $2.8 billion, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding an $863 million loss on the sale of the German stores to Metro AG, earnings per share were 72 cents in the latest period, in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. Quarterly sales rose 11.3 percent to $84.52 billion.
Wal-Mart has been adding more upscale merchandise, such as trendy clothing and organic food, to try to get wealthier shoppers to buy more high-margin items.
The retailer is also in the process of remodeling hundreds of stores, and some analysts have questioned whether those efforts have caused disruption and hurt sales.
The retailer said it still expects full-year profit in the range of $2.88 to $2.95 per share, excluding the loss from selling the German stores. Analysts, on average, expected $2.92, according to Reuters Estimates, and some on Wall Street had worried that Wal-Mart would lower its forecast.
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