Walmart’s shares soared nearly 10 percent during the April 9 trading session after the company maintained its sales outlook and pledged to keep prices low for customers amid economic uncertainty.
In its Investment Community Meeting on April 9, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant reaffirmed its previous guidance of 3 to 4 percent sales growth for the first quarter of 2025 while keeping annual sales and operating income growth targets unchanged.
“The combination of a purpose-driven, people-centric culture with world-class technology is the winning formula,” he said.
He also emphasized Walmart’s commitment to “invest in low prices.”
“Our customers want four things: everyday low prices, a broad assortment, a convenient and enjoyable shopping experience, and to do business with a company they trust. We’re changing to serve them even better,” he said.
John David Rainey, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walmart, speaking about the company’s expectations for the first quarter, said it’s still too early to evaluate how the Trump administration’s newly announced tariffs would affect the company.
“We are one week into this new tariff environment, and we’re still working through what it means to us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the executive reminded investors that more than two-thirds of what the company sells in the United States “is made, grown, or assembled” domestically.
Rainey acknowledged that uncertainty from tariffs and a decline in consumer sentiment had led to sales volatility in the first quarter, adding that general merchandise sales were softer earlier in the quarter but have since improved.
However, he also viewed the tariffs as an opportunity for the company to gain market share.
“We see opportunities to accelerate share gains and are maintaining the flexibility to invest in price as tariffs are applied to incoming goods,” Rainey said.
In conclusion, he said the company is focused on the long term.
“What history tells us is that when we lean into these periods of economic uncertainty, Walmart emerges on the other side with a greater share and a stronger business, and we don’t expect this current to be any different.”
Walmart will report its first-quarter earnings on May 15.
The company’s shares rose following the investor meeting, climbing as much as 11 percent after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs that had taken effect earlier in the day—excluding those on China. Stocks ended the day up 9.55 percent.
Walmart’s positive tone comes at a time of uncertainty for U.S. retailers. Elevated inflation and rising consumer debt are beginning to affect consumer spending.
Historically, one of the most difficult periods of uncertainty for Walmart came when Amazon threatened to turn brick-and-mortar retailers into “window-shopping places”—where customers would check prices in-store and then order from Amazon online.
However, Walmart fought back by investing heavily in e-commerce and leveraging its extensive store network to create a retailing omnichannel that could deliver value and convenience to customers: they could shop online and pick up the merchandise at the local store on the same day or within the hour.
“We have fundamentally changed our business model through years of thoughtful, strategic investments and now have a financial model that yields much higher returns,” Rainey stated.
These higher returns are reflected in the three building blocks of Walmart’s value creation: growth, margin, and returns.
Since its April 2023 meeting with investors, the company has delivered an annual top-line growth of over 5 percent and an adjusted operating income growth of almost 10 percent, with all business segments contributing to growth.
Online sales have increased by over 20 percent annually, with e-commerce now accounting for 18 percent of net sales. The company’s global advertising business grew to $4.4 billion, and in December 2024, it finalized the acquisition of VIZIO in the United States.
In addition, the company expanded its delivery catchment, now delivering food, general merchandise, and prescriptions to 93 percent of the United States in less than three hours.
Meanwhile, the retail giant returned more than $7 billion to shareholders through share repurchases—the largest in more than a decade.
Equity analysts had been anxiously anticipating Walmart’s investor meeting to get clues about the retail giant’s financial situation, which is a barometer for the retailing industry’s economic health.
“Top-of-mind concern about recent events and the health of the consumer threaten to overshadow positive messages that we expect at these meetings,” John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis Capital and a close follower of the retail sector, said in a note to the subscribers of his investment letters.
“Nevertheless, we expect WMT to keep to its script given momentum in the business, better execution, market share gains, improving profitability in e-commerce, and the company’s augmented business model (via growth of higher margin ‘alternative profit pools’).”
As Zolidis expected, Walmart’s leadership showcased several of its competitive advantages, such as a massive and sophisticated global sourcing network, state-of-the-art distribution infrastructure, and brand positioning anchored in providing the lowest price to the consumer.
As a result, Zolidis is optimistic about the retail giant’s future and has a “Buy” rating for its shares.
