Walmart Posts Optimistic 3rd Q Financial Results

Better customer traffic and improvement in same store sales meant that Walmart topped earnings expectations in the third quarter, despite currency headwinds in Europe and competitive pressure from Amazon.com and dollar stores. Earnings per share ($1.03) for the 3rd quarter beat Wall Street expectations of $0.97 a share. Revenue slipped to $117.42 billion from $119 billion. On a constant currency basis, total revenue was $122.4 billion, an increase of 2.8 percent. Wall Street expected $117.82 billion. International net sales were $29.8 billion. On a constant currency basis, sales were $34.7 billion, led by Mexico and Canada. Operating income slid 6.4 percent, but increased 8.5 percent on a constant currency basis.