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Major retailers including Amazon.com have been struggling to
bring products into the United States ahead of the peak shopping
season due to shipping logjams, shuttered factories in parts of
Asia and a scarcity of raw materials in the recent months.
Walmart, which has been chartering its own vessels to move
goods, said U.S. inventory was up 11.5% ahead of the busy
festive season.
"We have the people, the products, and the prices to deliver a
great holiday season for our customers and members," Chief
Executive Officer Doug McMillon said in a statement.
The bold forecast from Walmart come in contrast to rival
ecommerce giant Amazon, which issued an underwhelming
fourth-quarter outlook and warned of higher costs during the
holiday period to weigh on a surge in demand for online
shopping.
Walmart said it expects full-year U.S. same-store sales to be
more than 6% higher than its prior forecast of a 5% to 6% rise.
Adjusted profit is expected to be around $6.40 per share up from
a previous range of $6.20 to $6.35.
In the third quarter, sales at U.S. stores open at least a year
rose 9.2%, excluding fuel, benefiting from higher grocery demand
and people buying more at stores. Analysts had estimated a gain
of 7.04%, according to Refinitiv data.
However, gross profit rate decreased 42 basis points due to
higher supply chain costs.
Walmart's total revenue grew by a better-than-expected 4.3% to
$140.53 billion and on an adjusted basis it earned $1.45 per
share.
The company's stock was up about 1% at $148.24 in premarket
trading.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Richa Naidu
in Chicago; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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