Walmart Earnings News: WMT advances 5% on Q4 beat with Vizio acquisition in the bag

UPDATE: Walmart indeed bested the Wall Street earnings consensus early Tuesday. The leading retailer in the US announced adjusted EPS of $1.80, 15 cents ahead of the consensus forecast for the fourth quarter. Revenue arrived at $173.4 billion, more than $4 billion ahead of the projected top line. Global digital sales grew 23% from a year ago, while the retail advertising unit saw 33% YoY growth. WMT stock jumped 5.6% at the start of Tuesday's regular session, hitting an all-time high above $180 per share. Management said it would pay $2.3 billion for Vizio's connected TV business.

Walmart (WMT) kicks off earnings this week following the Presidents’ Day market holiday on Monday. The largest retailer releases its results for the fourth quarter in Tuesday’s premarket and ahead of Nvidia's (NVDA) release scheduled for Wednesday.

Besides results and guidance, questions early Tuesday will most likely involve Walmart’s rumored buyout of Vizio for $2 billion, which company executives have remained mum on since The Wall Street Journal reported it last week.

Walmart stock earnings news

Wall Street expects Walmart to earn $1.65 in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) on a record $169.26 billion in sales for the quarter ending in January. This would amount to a 4% increase in revenue but a slight dip from the year prior’s quarter of $1.71 in adjusted EPS. 

Walmart has a long track record of beating analyst consensus, and the odds are that it will do so this time as well. JPMorgan said in a recent note that with more than two-thirds of S&P 500 companies having already reported this cycle, 78% of companies have beaten earnings consensus, while 57% have beaten revenue consensus.

Walmart’s advertising business will also get special attention at the earnings call, which comes at 8:00am on February 20. Walmart brought in approximately $3.19 billion in advertising revenue in 2023, while forecasts call for that number to hit $4 billion in 2024.

Also on shareholder and analyst minds will be the impending stock split, which is typically bullish for stocks. On February 26, Walmart plans to hand shareholders three shares for every one currently owned. Based on the current price, this would mean a share value somewhere around $57. 

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Walmart stock forecast

Walmart stock is up 7% year-to-date and is trading at its all-time high. WMT stock has formed a cup with the range high from mid-November and closed last Friday just a little bit higher.

Walmart stock currently trades slightly above its five-year average on a forward P/E ratio. The Prices/Sales ratio also shows a slight premium at present compared with the five-year average.

Walmart stock has remained in an uptrend since June of 2022. With the weekly chart’s Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator displaying a bullish crossover, WMT stock appears likely to make a new all-time high on Tuesday.

WMT weekly stock chart