Wal-Mart Sales Hit $244.5 Billion
by February 17, 2003 12:00 am 74 views
January same-store sales rose 2.3 percent for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., missing the Thomson First Call analysts’ consensus estimate of 3 percent growth. But the world’s largest company boosted it’s earnings projection for fiscal 2003, which ended Jan. 31.
In a Feb. 6 press release, Wal-Mart said it now expects earnings of about $ 1.80 a share for fiscal 2003.
A current Thomson First Call survey of 22 analysts produced a mean earnings estimate of $1.78 a share for the company’s fiscal year. Wal-Mart earned $6.67 billion, or $1.49 a share, on total revenue of $219.8 in fiscal 2002, which ended January 31, 2002.
In November, the Bentonville-based company said it expected to achieve its previously stated earnings target of $1.76 to $ 1.78 a share for the year.
The retailer said total sales for the four weeks ended Jan. 31 rose 12.9 percent to $ 17.39 billion from $15.4 billion a year earlier.
Companywide same-store sales for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 31 rose 6.1 percent from last year, and total sales for the 52 weeks increased to $244.5 billion from $ 219.06 billion the prior year.