WMT Walmart Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Walmart Inc. on Thursday said it expects sales and earnings will fall during the current fiscal year, due mainly to the sale of some of its international operations.

Excluding the effect of divestitures, the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant said it expects low-single-digit sales growth in fiscal 2022, with per-share earnings flat to up slightly.

The company reported adjusted earnings of $5.48 a share for fiscal 2021, which ended Jan. 31, on revenue of $559.2 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, are expecting the retailer to post an adjusted profit of $5.75 a share on sales of $560 billion in fiscal 2022.

Walmart, which sold its Argentina unit in November, completed the sale of its U.K. operations this month and expects to complete the sale of its operations in Japan during the current fiscal first quarter.

Walmart shares, which closed Wednesday at $147.20, were recently down 4.7% in premarket trading.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2021 08:21 ET (13:21 GMT)

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