Retail giant Walmart earned $ 1,273 million in the first six months of its fiscal year 2019, down 78.6% year-on-year, but managed to increase sales in recent months, triggering investor interest.
The company from Bentonville (Arkansas) recorded a net profit per share of $ 0.43 between February and July, compared to $ 1.96 for the same six months of the previous year, when earnings were $ 5,938 million. .
The chain of large surfaces invoiced in those dates 250.718 million dollars, what supposes an increase of 4.1% with regard to the same section of the previous exercise, when it entered 240.897 million.
As for the quarterly results, which most analysts paid attention to today, Walmart had losses of 861 million dollars (29 cents per share), while the previous year it had gained 2,899 million (96 cents per share).
The losses are a direct consequence of the sale of Walmart Brasil, an operation for which the company recorded a negative impact of 4.8 billion dollars in the quarter.
Investors, meanwhile, were much more focused on the income obtained by the company between May and July, which amounted to 128,028 million dollars, above the 123,355 million dollars invoiced in the second quarter of the previous year.
The figures exceeded Wall Street expectations, thanks to strong US sales.
Walmart began in recent months to reap the rewards of its renewed commitment to the sale of food and saw also a significant growth in online sales, after redesigning its website to try to compete with Amazon.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon applauded customers’ response to the impulse of stores and e-commerce “to make purchases faster and convenient.”
After disclosing their accounts, the company’s stock shot up on the New York Stock Exchange, rising more than 10% at the beginning of the session and stabilizing at an advance of around 9% half an hour after the start of operations .
