Walmart stock holds onto 6% loss following ho-hum outlook

Walmart (WMT) stock is trading 6% lower on Thursday despite delivering better than expected quarterly results for the fourth quarter. The largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the US beat Wall Street consensus on earnings per share (EPS) by a penny and the average revenue estimate by 0.9%. 

Shares fell from Wednesday’s close of $104.00 to $97.32 at the time of writing on Thursday afternoon, down roughly 6.4%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), of which Walmart stock is a constituent, fell 1.4% in the session. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 also trickled about 0.8% lower. The market was affected by Walmart’s guidance, but US labor data and the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index also underperformed expectations.

Walmart Q4 earnings

Walmart reported adjusted EPS of $0.66 on revenue of $180.6 billion with the latter figure arriving $1.6 billion ahead of consensus. Sales rose a little over 4% YoY.

Global eCommerce ticked up 16% YoY, and Global Advertising gained 29% from a year earlier. The eCommerce segment growth helped US comparable sales to gain 4.6% on an annual basis. But those positive snapshots didn’t make up for lackluster guidance.

Walmart management projects 2025 (fiscal 2026) consolidated net sales growth between 3% and 4%, with operating income gaining at a 3.5% to 5.5% clip. This is not too far off the existing outlook from analysts but maybe didn’t offer enough upside for the market, which has bequeathed Walmart stock with a higher multiple than usual.

Management is guiding for full-year adjusted EPS in a range between $2.50 and $2.60, which is a bit lower than the $2.76 per share that Wall Street had been expecting.

CEO Doug McMillan sought to remain positive about the outlook: “Once you take the noise out of guidance, we’re in a great spot to start the year as we grow profits faster than sales.” 

Additionally, the management team hiked Walmart's quarterly dividend by 13% to $0.235 per share.

WMT daily stock chart