Walmart blames winter for decline in earnings

Published: May 19th, 2014
Written by: Editorial Team

Walmart has blamed the cold weather for the decline in their lower than expected first quarter 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.

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