But the increase was driven by higher traffic, while average spending per visit dipped.
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We believe the pullback in the shares following the company’s 22nd Annual Meeting for the Investment Community on October 14, as well as concerns affecting the retail group overall around consumer spending ahead of the important Holiday selling season, is adequately reflected at today’s levels.
“We’re feeling good about what we’re pulling together”, Foran said.
Sales in Wal-Mart’s global segment, meanwhile, fell 11 percent to $29.81 billion. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations.
Foran noted that low food inflation and last year’s big drop in fuel prices would make fourth-quarter comparisons hard. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, sales were $34.7 billion.
The average estimate among 116 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.98 per share and revenue of $117.59 billion.
The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.03, above the Street’s expectation of $0.975.
Shares of Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) opened at 57.87 on Tuesday.
Earlier this year Wal-Mart announced a turnaround plan for its USA stores that included raising wages to retain and attract high-quality employees, as well as a focus on its e-commerce operations. On average, analysts predict that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will post $4.51 EPS for the current year. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Wal-Mart Stores from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday.
Wal-Mart shares have decreased 33 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has stayed almost flat. The stock has declined 30 percent in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research.
