Walmart blames winter for decline in earnings

They placed the blame on the brutal winter for keeping shoppers at home. This has caused the company’s shares to drop by almost 3% during Thursday’s trading.

The company reported first quarter 2015 fiscal revenue of $114.2 billion. This is lower than the $116.3 billion consensus by analysts, but shows an increase of 0.8% on the same period for the previous year. The chain notes a $1.6 billion profit from foreign exchange fluctuations and if this did not occur, the revenue would have seen an increase of 2.1% to $115.7 billion.

The retailer’s net income settled at $3.58 billion, which is a decline of 5.1% from the same period during the previous year. This resulted in share earnings of $1.10 per share, which is a decline from $1.14 during the same period last year.

Walmart is expecting figures for the next quarter to be relatively flat. Following the publication of its earnings results, the company’s shares dropped almost 3% during the pre-market trading session on Thursday.