Investing.com - Dow component Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) reported lower-than-expected second quarter earnings early on Tuesday and cut its full-year outlook, sending shares lower in pre-market trade.
Q2 earnings were pressured by currency fluctuations, lower Walmart U.S. margins and investments in customer experience.
U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart said earnings per share came in at $1.08, below expectations for earnings of $1.12 per share and down from earnings of $1.26 in the same period a year earlier.
Currency exchange rates negatively impacted earnings per share by approximately $0.04.
The company’s second quarter revenue totaled $120.20 billion, just above forecasts for revenue of $119.72 billion.
Comp sales at Walmart U.S. increased 1.5%, driven by traffic of 1.3%. Neighborhood Market comps increased approximately 7.3%, with strong growth from new stores. Customer experience scores improved over last year.
E-commerce sales globally increased approximately 16% on a constant currency basis. Gross merchandise value, or GMV, increased approximately 18% on a constant currency basis.
Walmart updated full year earnings guidance to a range of $4.40 to $4.70, from a previous range of $4.70 to $5.05. This range includes Q3 EPS guidance of $0.93 to $1.05.
Following the release of the report, Wal-Mart shares declined 2.27% in pre-market trade to $70.26 from Monday's closing price of $71.89.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was mildly lower. The Dow futures pointed to a loss of 0.3% at the open, the S&P 500 futures indicated a decline of 0.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures decreased 0.3%.