Walmart Has an Earnings Surprise in Store. Why the Stock Is a Buy.

Walmart


stock has barely budged over the past three months. That looks about to change as it gets set to report earnings. The discount mega-retailer is benefiting from a shift in how the U.S. consumer is spending money.

Walmart (ticker: WMT) reports its fiscal fourth-quarter numbers this coming Tuesday. Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of $1.52 from just under $160 billion in sales, roughly flat with the year-ago quarter. Those numbers look more than achievable, and its same-store sales—a common industry metric that, for Walmart, tracks revenue at stores that have been open the previous 12 months—could really pack a punch. While the Street expects them to grow at a 3.6% clip, Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom expects them to jump 6.5%. Holiday sales were likely stronger than what analysts had called for, he says.