Key Takeaways
- Before the opening bell Thursday, retail giant Walmart reports results for its fiscal 2025 first quarter, a busy period that included a stock split and a number of significant announcements.
- The retailer announced a new product line, bought TV maker Vizio for more than $2 billion, and initiated the closure of its Walmart Health clinics in the period.
- Analysts expect revenue to increase slightly year-over-year, with profits forecast to take a substantial step forward.
Walmart (WMT) on Thursday morning reports results for its fiscal 2025 first quarter, a busy period that included a stock split, the launch of a product line, and the shuttering of the retail giant’s Walmart Health clinics.
Analysts expect Walmart’s first-quarter revenue to increase 4.7% year-over-year to $159.51 billion from last year’s $152.3 billion, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Profit is expected to be substantially larger, however, more than doubling to $4.05 billion, or 51 cents per share, from last year’s $1.67 billion. Walmart registered profit of 62 cents per share a year ago, before it underwent a 3-for-1 stock split this February.
In its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter that also included the holiday season, Walmart reported $5.49 billion in profit on revenue of $173.39 billion.
Key Metric: E-Commerce Sales
Like many retailers, Walmart has expanded its digital offerings in recent years, hoping to make a dent in Amazon’s (AMZN) e-commerce market share.
The company’s digital strategies and emphasis on growing its delivery and pickup services have paid off in recent quarters, with global e-commerce sales growing 23% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, surpassing $100 billion for the year.
The retail and e-commerce subscription market also got more competitive in the first quarter, with Target (TGT) announcing its new Target Circle 360 membership in March, looking to offer competitive same-day or next-day delivery and other services compared with what Amazon Prime and Walmart+ offer.
Business Spotlight: Positive and Negative Q1 Announcements
Walmart had a busy first quarter, from the 3-for-1 stock split that it completed in February to its agreement that month to acquire TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion, giving it a new potential source of advertising revenue.
“We believe VIZIO’s customer-centric operating system provides great viewing experiences at attractive price points,” Walmart Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire said at the time. “We also believe it enables a profitable advertising business that is rapidly scaling.”
Company leadership could also provide updates on another pair of announcements made on April 30, including the launch of a new “bettergoods” food product line, which Walmart said is its “largest private brand food launch in 20 years.”
The same day, Walmart announced its move to shut down its Walmart Health centers, which the company started in 2019 and had since expanded to 51 clinics across five states.
Executives said in the February earnings call that Walmart was looking to grow revenue and profits through new revenue streams rather than raising prices. The White House has blamed consumer goods companies for taking advantage of inflation and pushing up prices to pad margins.
Walmart shares were little changed as of 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday but are up more than 13% so far this year.