Walmart’s quarterly profits sorely missed Wall Street’s forecasts despite higher sales, as higher costs from inflation, supply-chain snags and workers’ wages ate into margins.
The Arkansas-based retail giant said Tuesday it generated $141.57 billion in revenue — beating analyst estimates which anticipated $138.94 billion.
Neverthless, the company’s net income fell to $2.05 billion, or 74 cents per share. That’s down from $2.73 billion, or 97 cents per share, from a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.30 — short of the expected $1.48.
Shares of Walmart were recently off more than 9% in early trading on Tuesday.
“The primary reason for Walmart’s missing earning per share is inflation,” Sankar Sharma, a market strategist and founder of RiskRewardReturn.com, told The Post.
“Higher product costs, supply chain issues, and higher employee costs all ate into the company’s profits.”
Walmart announced earlier this week that it was rolling out a streamlined program to place recent college graduates into store manager roles that pay our more than $200,000 a year.
Dubbed the “College2Career program,” the pilot initiative is a fast-track training program for recent college graduates and individuals within 12 months of their graduation date, the company said.
Walmart said participants will receive a mix of classroom lessons, individual mentorship and hands-on experience in store management – with standout performers offered the management role of “emerging coach” and a starting salary of $65,000 or more per year.
Last week, the federal government unveiled data showing that inflation surged a higher-than-expected 8.3% in April.
The data indicated inflation ticked down slightly after hitting 8.5% in March — but not as much as economists had forecast, highlighting the tricky task ahead for the Fed as it aims to tamp down price increases without triggering a recession.
On a monthly basis, the Consumer Price Index, a key inflation gauge that tracks what consumers pay for goods and services, rose 0.3% from March to April.
That was down from a whopping 1.2% increase from February to March.
Ahead of the release, economists polled by Dow Jones predicted the CPI would jump 8.1% in April.
