Courtesy of Benzinga.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) hit a new 52-week high and a first quarter earnings beat on Thursday.
The retail giant’s core U.S. business saw 1.4-percent same-store sales growth in the quarter and traffic growth was up 1.5 percent, the best performance since fiscal year 2012.
Quarter Print, In Review
A key figure from the first quarter was Wal-Mart’s e-commerce performance, which grew a remarkable 63 percent year over year.
It appears that the company’s increased emphasis to penetrate the e-commerce world is paying off, following the $3.3 billion Jet.com acquisition Wal-Mart made last year to jumpstart e-commerce and fire back at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
International business was slow, however, growing just 0.8 percent on a constant currency basis, the slowest growth since fiscal year 2010.
Analyst Commentary, Justification For Neutral Rating
“Overall, we consider this to be a decent set of results for WMT as it works on transforming its business model. The print showed WMT is making good progress. Looking ahead, a key debate will be whether it can keep up its in-store US comp growth, particularly as it grows eComm & competition in grocery intensifies,” said UBS analyst Michael Lasser following the earnings release.
UBS maintains a Neutral rating on Wal-Mart with a $73 price target.
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Wal-Mart Hits New 52-Week Highs As Q1 Impresses Investors
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Image Credit: By 020808 at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Latest Ratings for WMT
Date | Firm | Action | From | To |
---|---|---|---|---|
May 2017 | BMO Capital | Upgrades | Underperform | Market Perform |
May 2017 | Gordon Haskett | Initiates Coverage On | Buy | |
Apr 2017 | Telsey Advisory Group | Upgrades | Market Perform | Outperform |
View More Analyst Ratings for WMT
View the Latest Analyst Ratings
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