Walmart and stock markets

 On November 14, Walmart’s shares increased by 1%. In 2019, shares rose by more than 30%. Another interesting information is that during the morning the stock hit a 52-week high as price reached $125.38. This news affected the stock markets.

In the third quarter, Walmart’s adjusted earnings per share were $1,16. As a result, this result surpassed expectations. Analysts expected earnings per share would reach $1.09.

The U.S. same-store sales rose by 3.2%.

Nevertheless, revenue missed the expectations, as during the third-quarter revenue was $127.99. Analysts estimated that revenue would reach $128.65 billion.

In the third quarter of 2019, net income grew to $3.29 billion or $1.15 a share. In 2018, net income was $1.71 billion or 58 cents per share. Total revenue rose by 2.5% from $124.89 billion to $127.99 in comparison with the same period in 2018.

Also, the average ticket in the U.S. grew by 1.9%. In the third quarter, transactions increased by 1.3%. This number lower than Walmart expected as the company’s forecast was higher by 0.3%.

Walmart, Amazon, and stock markets

E-commerce sales grew up to 41% thanks to strong growth in online grocery. In 2019, online sales increased by 35%; this number is a little bit lower than the company expected in fiscal 2019.

In the U.S., the retailer has to compete against Amazon, which is also interested in this business.

Walmart made the decision to deliver groceries directly to the customers. This program is available in three cities. The price of the InHome grocery delivery membership program is $19.95 a month. At the moment, it has more than 2,700 grocery pickup locations for online orders in the U.S.

Walmart’s other rival, Target, benefited from its competitor’s strong report. Its shares increased by 1.7% on Thursday morning. 

As mentioned above, Walmart’s shares climbed more than 30% in 2019. The market cap of Walmart is around $347.6 billion. Amazon’s market value is $870.6 billion.