Easter Kills Wal-Mart (WMT), Stock Dives
Wal-Mart’s (WMT) same-store sales were light, by a lot. For the four weeks of March, revenue was actually down 2% to $36.2 billion. International sales killed results by dropping 15% to $8.1 billion. But, US same-store sales were well below…
For the four weeks of March, revenue was actually down 2% to $36.2 billion. International sales killed results by dropping 15% to $8.1 billion.
But, US same-store sales were well below most projections. up only 1.4%. With Sam’s Club factored out, sales at the flagship brand stores moved up only a tiny .6%.
Management said that April sales would pick up because of Easter and confirmed that quarterly earnings will be in the high end of the $0.72 to $0.77 per share range. But, with March results, the market faces a seed of doubt.
If Easter sales don’t match expectations, Wal-Mart’s stock is dead.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
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A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.