Walmart’s (WMT) shares rose 2.5% in early trading to $74.75 after sales growth in its home market helped it record a second quarter constant currency sales rise of 2.8% to US$123.6bn.
Walmart shrugged off Asda’s sales slump in the UK to grow total revenues by 0.5% on a reported basis to $120.9bn.
Its US sales were up for the eight consecutive quarter, growing by 1.6% with traffic up 1.2%.
Net sales at Walmart International were $28.6bn and $31.3bn excluding the impact of currencies, which represented an increase of 2.2% despite the collapse in sales at Asda.
Globally, on a constant currency basis, e-commerce sales and gross merchandise value increased 11.8% and 13.0%, respectively, representing an acceleration from the first quarter growth rate.
Consolidated operating income increased 1.6%, including a gain of $535 million from the sale of Chinese online grocery business Yihaodian.
Excluding this gain, consolidated operating income declined 7.2%. Wal-Mart said: “As expected, investments in people and technology, as well as currency exchange rate fluctuations negatively impacted results”.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart Stores, commented: “We’re pleased with the positive momentum in our business.
Our strategy in the U.S. is working as we delivered an eighth consecutive quarter of positive comps, and international also performed well. We remain focused on building e-commerce capabilities globally and executing our omni-channel plan, as evidenced by our recent alliance with JD.com in China and agreement to acquire Jet.com in the U.S.
“Walmart is uniquely positioned to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience where we save them time and money.”
Walmart shares are up 22.1% since the start of the year and hit an annual low of $56.30 in November 2015.
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