Walmart 3Q earnings beat expectations, but revenue misses

Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, said Thursday its third-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) beat Wall Street expectations on strong online shopping, but revenue was a miss.

EPS was $1.08, higher than the $1.01 that had been expected and a penny more than the year-earlier quarter. Revenue came in at $124.9 billion, less than the $125.5 billion analysts polled by Refinitiv expected, but higher than the $123.2 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Same-store sales increased 3.4 percent and e-commerce sales surged 32 percent. In the U.S. e-commerce sales climbed 43 percent.

The company raised its fiscal 2019 guidance for adjusted EPS to a range of $4.75 to $4.85, up from $4.65 to $4.80.

Net sales at Walmart International were $28.8 billion, a decline of 2.6 percent.

"We have momentum in the business as we execute our plan and benefit from a favorable economic environment in the U.S. We're accelerating innovation and utilizing technology to shape the future of retail. We're making shopping at Walmart faster and easier," CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement.

Shares of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based corporation were down slightly in premarket action.

Walmart, which operates in 27 countries, has 2.3 million employees worldwide and has more than 11,000 stores.