Walmart beats as online sales continue to surge
The world's largest retailer announced adjusted earnings of $1.30 per share, edging out the $1.29 that was expected. Revenue, excluding currency, ticked up 3.0% to $133.6 billion.
Comparable-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, jumped 1.8%, easily surpassing the 1.3% gain that analysts were anticipating.
"We had a very solid fourth quarter with U.S. comp sales growth of 1.8 percent and U.S. e-commerce GMV growth of 36 percent," Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said in the earnings release.
Walmart expects to earn $0.90 to $1.00 per share during the first quarter of 2017. The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.51 per share from $0.50 per share.