Walmart crushed revenue expectations but stumbled on profits Thursday, sending shares of the retail giant tumbling in premarket trading.
Walmart reported better than expected quarterly revenue as inflation-battered shoppers flocked to its stores — but the retail giant’s shares were poised to drop as costs from Trump’s tariffs cut into profits.
The world’s biggest retailer posted quarterly revenue of $177.4 billion — a hefty 4.8% jump that sailed past Wall Street’s $175.9 billion target.
But Walmart meanwhile missed quarterly profit expectations for the first time since May 2022.
Executives also warned they expect to hike prices on about 10% of items across its stores to offset higher import costs from President Trump’s tariff policies.
Markets have been anticipating Walmart management’s commentary on consumer demand trends and the company’s strategy for navigating potential tariff headwinds in the months ahead.
Behind the scenes, Walmart is scrambling to keep prices low as tariff costs mount. Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told CNBC the company is speeding up imports from overseas and ramping up Rollbacks — limited-time discounts — in stores.
“This is managed on an item-by-item and category-by-category basis,” Rainey said.
“There are certainly areas where we have fully absorbed the impact of higher tariff costs. There are other areas where we’ve had to pass some of those costs along.”
But Rainey warned that “tariff-impacted costs are continuing to drift upwards,” signaling more price pressures ahead.
Adjusted earnings clocked in at just 68 cents per share, falling short of the 73 cents analysts had penciled in.
