Walmart lowers earnings forecast after factoring impact of Flipkart deal

Walmart Inc lowered its earnings forecast for the year on Tuesday to include the impact from its acquisition of Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, and said its e-commerce growth next year will be slower than the current financial year.   

In May, Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion, its largest-ever deal, in order to compete with Amazon.com Inc in an important growth market.

The retailer now expects to earn between $4.65 and $4.80 per share for the financial year 2019 from an earlier forecast of $4.90 and $5.05 per share.

Shares were down 2.5 per cent at $91.5 in premarket trading.
 

Walmart also expects a lower growth rate of 35 per cent for its online business in the financial year 2020. Earlier this year, it said US online sales were on track to surge 40 per cent for the current year. 

In August, Walmart posted its best quarterly US sales growth in a decade and raised its full-year sales and profit outlooks, showing it could hold its own against Amazon.

The company has benefited from lower unemployment and tax cuts that have put more money in US consumers' pockets this year.
 

For the financial year 2020, Walmart expects comparable sales growth of 2.5 per cent to three per cent and expects earnings to decline by a low-single-digit percentage compared to financial year 2019 on account of Flipkart. 

The retailer will address investors at its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters starting at 9:00 am ET (1300 GMT).