Walmart began a new chapter under CEO John Furner by reporting a holiday-quarter performance that combined solid top-line growth with cautious guidance for the year ahead. The retailer said overall revenue for the quarter rose 5.6% to $190.66 billion, slightly above consensus, while its outlook for the coming fiscal year came in below many analysts' expectations.
Management guided to consolidated net sales growth of 3.5% to 4.5% for fiscal 2027, a range that mirrors the initial outlook for the year that just ended but is lower than the roughly 5% increase forecast by analysts, according to LSEG data cited by the company. Walmart also projected adjusted earnings per share in a band of $2.75 to $2.85, undercutting the $2.96 analysts had been anticipating.
Holiday quarter drivers
Executives said investments in online fulfilment and the retailer's focus on keeping prices low successfully drew shoppers through the holiday period. E-commerce contributed meaningfully to comparable sales in the quarter, with U.S. online sales rising 27% - the 15th consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage growth for Walmart's domestic digital business. The company reported that expedited store-fulfilled delivery channels grew by more than 50% during the period.
Walmart's U.S. same-store sales for the fourth quarter, which spans November, December and January, rose 4.6%. That reading exceeded analysts' expectations of a 4.2% gain. Data from shopper traffic tracker Placer.ai showed increased visits to Walmart's roughly 4,600 stores in every month of the quarter, underscoring foot-traffic strength alongside the online gains.
Management highlighted the retailer's breadth in groceries and its negotiating power with suppliers as factors that have made the chain appealing to value-focused shoppers across income groups. The company said higher-income households - those earning more than $100,000 - have been a notable source of market-share gains in recent years and have also supported Walmart's online growth. That shift has contributed to sales of higher-margin categories such as clothing, kitchen appliances, furniture and toys.
Leadership transition and market response
Furner stepped into the top role after leading Walmart's U.S. operations through the pandemic and preparing the business for technology-driven changes. The company's U.S. unit, now under the leadership of David Guggina, represents nearly 70% of Walmart's annual revenue.
Markets had largely welcomed Furner's promotion, and the stock has been an outperformer over the last year, posting a gain of 22% and making Walmart the first retailer to surpass a $1 trillion market valuation. Despite that recent strength, shares traded lower in premarket activity, off about 2.6% following the guidance miss relative to analyst estimates.
Alongside the quarterly results and outlook, Walmart announced a new $30 billion share buyback program.
Macroeconomic context cited
Walmart's disclosure also offered an early look at how consumers responded to higher import costs tied to tariffs. The company, among the first major U.S. chains to report on the critical holiday quarter, noted that broader U.S. retail sales metrics painted a mixed picture: retail sales excluding autos, gasoline, building materials and food services eased 0.1% in December after rising 0.2% in November. The company said that slowdown suggests some retrenchment by shoppers in response to higher prices, which have been partly attributed to import tariffs on countries including China.
What the numbers mean
For the quarter, Walmart's topology of performance combined steady in-store traffic with expanding digital penetration. The robust growth in online sales and faster delivery options continued to lift categories with higher margins, but management's conservative full-year sales and EPS guidance signals caution in the near term. The results therefore show a retailer that remains competitively strong while setting measured expectations for what lies ahead.
Investors and market watchers will likely weigh the trade-off between Walmart's continued share gains, online momentum and its lower-than-expected earnings outlook when assessing the stock in the coming weeks.