Walmart is surging after earnings crush Wall Street expectations

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

• Walmart
  beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations on Thursday, nearly
  doubling the forecasted same-store sales growth rate.
• E-commerce grew 40% over the same period a year
  ago.
• Shares rose more than 10% in early trading Thursday
  following the release.
• 
  Follow
  Walmart’s stock price in real-time here. 
  

Shares of Walmart
surged more than 10% in early trading Thursday after the US’
largest grocer reported an uptick in same-store sales and digital
orders that helped it top Wall Street’s expectations.

For the second quarter ended June 30, Walmart said it earned
$1.29 per share where analysts had expected $1.22. Revenue also
topped the expected $126 billion to come in at 128 billion.

The beat was fueled by a 4.5% uptick in same-store sales, a
closely watched metric for retailers, which nearly doubled the
forecasted 2.4%.

Walmart has also been aggressively pushing into the digital realm
with expensive investments in companies like Jet.com, ModCloth, Bonobos and
more. After
taking a hit on its most recent fourth quarter earnings to
pay for the acquisitions, they seem to be paying off. E-commerce
sales were up 40% over the same period a year ago.

“We’re pleased with how customers are responding to the way we’re
leveraging stores and e-commerce to make shopping faster and
more convenient,” Doug McMillan, Walmart’s chief executive, said
in a press release. “We’re continuing to aggressively roll out
grocery pickup and delivery in the U.S., and we recently
announced expanded omni-channel initiatives in China and Mexico.”

Shares of Walmart are now up about 1% since the beginning of the
year, but still well off their $109 high set in January.

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