Wal-Mart, Spending to Fend off Amazon, Posts Earnings Decline as Revenue Grows

By Joshua Jamerson 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s profit fell 18% in the fourth quarter as it continues to boost spending to thwart competition from online retailers like Amazon, as revenue was boosted by e-commerce sales.

Same-store sales in the U.S. rose 1.8% for the quarter, the 10th straight quarterly increase, and foot traffic rose 1.4%. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales were up 29%, boosted by the purchase of online retailer Jet.com in September as well as online grocery.

Wal-Mart has been investing heavily -- in e-commerce as well as driving investment into its stores -- to fend off Amazon.com Inc.'s play for a bigger slice of the retail. The company has benefited recently from improved store operations and lower prices, but after rocky holiday-sales figures from Macy's Inc., Kohl's Corp. and Target Corp., investors were watching to see if Wal-Mart fared better than they did against Amazon.com Inc.

Wal-Mart also on Tuesday announced a 2% dividend increase to $2.04 a share annually. The company's stock rose 2.2% to $70.90 in premarket trading.

Over all for the period that ended in January, Wal-Mart reported a profit of $3.76 billion, or $1.22 a share, compared with $4.57 billion, or $1.43 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding certain items Wal-Mart said it earned $1.30 a share.

Revenue rose 1% to $130.94 billion. Excluding currency headwinds the company said revenue would've climbed to $133.6 billion. Analysts, polled by Thomson Reuters, expected per-share earnings of $1.29 on $131.22 billion in revenue.

Wal-Mart said operating, selling, general and administrative expenses rose 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Cost of sales edged up 0.8%.

For its year that ends in January 2018, Wal-Mart expects to earn between $4.20 and $4.40 Analysts, polled by Thomson Reuters, expected $4.33 a share.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 21, 2017 07:42 ET (12:42 GMT)

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