Wal-Mart reports in-line fall in quarterly profit

They include individual developments within Wal-Mart itself, general developments in the retail sector of which Wal-Mart is the biggest part, and finally much wider developments within the boom-bust business cycle as a whole. The fourth quarter income included a 20 cents per share loss to cover costs of closing 269 stores.

Buyers, for instance, used three laptops, one each for the two legacy systems and another for the Wal-Mart platform. In fact, today we announced a dividend increase. (NASDAQ:AMZN). The e-commerce giant Amazon has improved its top line while taking advantage of United States online shopping spree over the past year.

The increased expenses and currency challenges that negatively affected Walmart in 2015 aren’t going away in 2016 which is why the company offered a bleak outlook that seemed to catch some investors off guard.

And yet the gain is a relatively modest one, especially compared to the 1.5 percent growth it experienced in the same period past year, underscoring the challenges Walmart is facing as it tries to win over customers with cleaner, better-stocked stores and a more competitive digital offering. As such, it would be nearly impossible to report any significant annual revenue growth rates.

And consumers benefited from factors that made Wal-Mart sales look smaller.

Customers shop at a Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Springdale, Ark., last summer. We’ve built an e-commerce technology company inside of Walmart.

Walmart is not expecting any significant sales growth in the coming year – and that’s bad news for the retail industry as a whole. Goldman Sachs set a $58.00 price target on Wal-Mart Stores and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. “Investments in e-commerce fulfillment centers allowed us to extend the shipping cutoff date, and customers took full advantage of Pickup, ordering their gifts online and conveniently picking them up alongside their grocery trips”. The number of people visiting Wal-Mart’s stores rose 0.7%.

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 17th. It boasts a market capitalization in excess of $210 billion, and easily remains the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer.

CAMPO GRANDE/BENTONVILLE – When Wal-Mart Stores first expanded into Brazil’s midwestern farm-belt city of Campo Grande seven years ago, the economy was booming and executives were eager to open stores even in subprime locations on one-way streets heading out of town. We note fundamental fears will likely focus on decelerating eCommerce growth, food deflation trends, and F/X trends (stronger U.S. dollar); we could become more constructive with a lower valuation relative to growth profile.

While Amazon’s revenues have grown consistently over the years, the company’s net income has been rather volatile.

Brian Yarborough, an analyst at Edward Jones, expressed concern regarding the company’s lackluster sales forecast given its investments renovations and wages.

So while some quarterly reports among retailers are writing the latest chapter of a long, ugly tumble, or giving investors more reasons to throw the confetti, Wal-Mart sits somewhere in the middle as Thursday looms: far from down and out but not exactly up and away, either.