Walmart Releases Q3 FY22 Earnings

Total consolidated revenues increased 51.5 percent to $283.8 million, compared with total consolidated revenues of $187.3 million in the prior year period, reflecting strong growth in the Company’s three business segments along with contributions from PersonalizationMall.com (“PMall”), which the Company acquired in August 2020. Excluding the contribution from PMall, total net revenues increased 40.6 percent compared with the prior year period. Gross profit margin for the quarter was 40.7 percent, unchanged compared with the prior year period. Operating expenses as a percent of total revenues improved 630 basis points to 45.4 percent of total sales, compared with 51.7 percent of total sales in the prior year period. Excluding the impacts of the Company’s non-qualified deferred 401k compensation plan and one-time costs primarily associated with its acquisition of PersonalizationMall.com, operating expenses, as a percentage of total revenues improved 820 basis points to 43.5% in the quarter. This reflected the strong revenue growth in the quarter combined with the Company’s ability to leverage its operating platform.

Following the House Antitrust Subcommittee’s capstone digital markets hearing, “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” three groups representing thousands of authors, publishers, and booksellers in the United States – the Association of American Publishers, Authors Guild, and American Booksellers Association – have sent a joint letter to Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) enumerating a series of anti-competitive tactics that permit Amazon to exercise extraordinary market dominance over the advertising and sale of books in digital markets. Its practices against both book suppliers and book customers have threatened the vitality of the American publishing industry and rendered any meaningful competition from other publishers, booksellers, or emerging platforms impossible. “The Subcommittee’s work has shown that Amazon holds an outsized position of power and control in our country, giving it the ability to interfere with the free flow of information, ideas and literature on a large scale,” the letter tells the Chairman. The full letter can be viewed at: https://publishers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Joint-Letter-to-Rep-Cicilline-081720.pdf

Costco Wholesale Corporation announced its operating results for the first quarter (twelve weeks) of fiscal 2021, ended November 22, 2020. Net sales for the first quarter increased 16.9 percent, to $42.35 billion from $36.24 billion last year. Net income for the quarter was $1,166 million, or $2.62 per diluted share, compared to $844 million, or $1.90 per diluted share, last year. This year’s first quarter included tax benefits of $145 million or $0.33 per diluted share, $0.16 of which was due to the deductibility of the $10 per share special cash dividend, to the extent received by the Company’s 401(k) plan participants; and $0.17 cents related to stock-based compensation. Last year’s first quarter included a $77 million or $0.17 per diluted share tax benefit related to stock-based compensation. This year’s results reflect an expense for COVID-19 premium wages of $212 million pre-tax or $0.35 per diluted share.