The United States’s largest retailer Walmart said on Thursday that strong vacation sales inspired their revenue for another annual record, but slow growth, as shopkeepers put forward stubborn inflation, uncertain effects of tariffs And faced a possible increase in unemployment.
Walmart, which brings millions of customers each week, is a bellwet of American consumer trends. Investors did a rare damage to the weak-to-first forecast, speed for the company, which posted a series of bumper results.
Walmart said sales increased to $ 681 billion in its latest financial year, which runs from January, already increased by 5.1 percent. The annual profit of the retailer increased faster than sales, about 20 billion dollars.
Important holiday shopping season was a strong for the retailer, in which more people were going to the shops and were shopping online in the last quarter, and spending more on each trip. E-commerce sales in the United States increased by 20 percent.
Walmart’s CEO Daug McMillan said in a statement, “We are gaining a share in the market, our top line is healthy and we are in great shape with inventory.”
But looking further, the company said that this year revenue was expected to increase by 3 to 4 percent. This was slightly lighter than analysts, and Walmart’s stock fell nearly 8 percent in premarket trading.
David Silverman, a retail analyst at Fitch rating, said, “The company had 2024 very strong and the company has very strong years since the onset of epidemic.” “This is just a challenge to maintain these levels of development mathematically. ,
As Walmart has said for the past few years, high-ie shoppers, which the retailer has defined as more than $ 100,000, helped it gain market share. These consumers are better to absorb high prices, as inflation has recently tickled. Walmart increased the prices of eggs as a major factor to increase prices in recent months.
Walmart said its inventory level increased by 3 percent in the last quarter. In response to President Trump’s threat to tariff, analysts have expected that retailers such as Walmart would order more goods from China and other places, which would overtake the levy.
“The biggest challenge on the horizon for Walmart and everyone is how the tariff picture clears,” said Sharaj Mian, director of the research of Jack Investment Research.
In November, Walmart demanded to solve concerns about coming into contact with tariffs on Wall Street, saying that it sells two-thirds of goods that come from the United States. This is in part, due to Walmart’s large grocery business.
Nevertheless, Walmart’s finance head, John David Renny, said in an interview at that time that the company hoped that if new tariffs were imposed, they would be inflation for customers.
Low -income shopkeepers have less flexibility in their budget to absorb high prices. Despite attracting the company rapidly rich shopkeepers, its customer base is still on a large extent to low -income people.
The decline in Walmart’s shares on Thursday made a dent in the strength of the stock, which has jumped more than 70 percent in the last 12 months, which is much higher than the contestants such as Amazon and Target with a wider market.
“Stock is truly achieved as it was one of these highfilli tech stocks – so very strong speed,” Mr. Mian said. “The question has always been when when this trend takes place at a slow pace and when the stress and pressure of its lower income customers start appearing in the results?” He said.
