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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wal-Mart First-Quarter Profit Up 6.9%
Associated Press
![Wal-Mart Storefront [276]](/images/stories/wal_mart_storefront.jpg)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said Tuesday its profit rose 6.9% in its first quarter on higher sales as lower prices helped boost its results, topping Wall Street's expectations.
The company also cited better customer service and internal cost savings for the improvement.
Wal-Mart (WMT) earned $3.02 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the three months ended April 30, up from $2.83 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected earnings of 75 cents per share. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.
The company had overall revenue of $95.30 billion, up 10.3% from $86.41 billion in the prior year. Net sales excluding membership fees rose to $94.1 billion from $85.4 billion a year ago.
Analysts projected revenue of $93.47 billion for the quarter.
Without fuel, same-store sales for the first quarter were up 2.9% at Wal-Mart's domestic properties, rising 2.7% in the Wal-Mart Stores division and 3.6% at Sam's Clubs.
Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said for the second quarter the company expects sales in stores open at least a year to be between flat and up 2%. He said the company expects to earn between 78 cents per share and 81 cents per share.
He said the company has not yet been able to gauge how much of an impact the federal tax rebate checks will have on shoppers.
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A specialist is a member of a stock exchange who works as an auctioneer for a specific stock and/or stocks. It can be an individual, partnership, corporation or group of firms.
The specialist works to maintain a "fair and orderly market" for respective stocks, matching up buyers and sellers by displaying the best "bid" and "ask" prices at its trading post. If buys are not equal to sells, the specialist evens the scale by buying or selling shares, accordingly. However, they cannot make their own transactions until all investor orders have been placed.
Gauging supply and demand, the specialist sets an opening price for the stocks in its domain. If a price has not been set by the time the market opens, the specialist can delay that particular stock's opening.
Specialists make money off the "spread," which is the difference between bid and ask prices on orders.
