Walmart shares rise on earnings beat, as US e-commerce push pays off

Walmart reported fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday that beat expectations on the top and bottom line, as its e-commerce business rebounded.

After a disappointing e-commerce performance last quarter, Walmart said U.S. online sales grew 33 percent. The rise implied its investment, namely in online grocery and its website design, are paying off.

Here's how the company did compared with what Wall Street expected:

Earnings: $1.14 cents per share vs. $1.12 per share forecast by Thomson Reuters
Revenue: $122.69 billion vs. $120.51 billion forecast by Thomson Reuters
Same-store sales growth 2.1 percent vs. 2.0 percent forecast by Thomson Reuters

"Online grocery continued to accelerate and [we] had the new Walmart.com site redesign late in the quarter. We also have new brands in e-commerce including the partnership with Lord and Taylor, so there are a lot of different things driving growth there," said Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs, in an interview with CNBC.

In the quarter ended April 30, Walmart said net income fell to $2.13 billion, or 72 cents per share, from $3.04 billion, or $1.00 per share, a year ago.

On an adjusted basis, Walmart earned $1.14 per share, beating Thomson Reuters' expectations of $1.12 a share.

Sales rose 4.4 percent to $122.69 billion, beating estimates of $120.51 billion.

Walmart has been transforming its online grocery business and re-outfitting its stores to adjust for online delivery. It also recently redesigned its website and said yesterday its new "store within a store" partnership with Lord & Taylor will be launching in phases in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Walmart is amid an international transformation, announcing two deals over the past month.

It plans to partially exit its stake in British grocer Asda by merging the business with peer J Sainsbury, it said in April.

"We've made a number of announcements of strategic moves we believe will strengthen our position around the world, Q1 is a good example of why we are able to do that — we are in a great financial position and the underlying business was very strong," Biggs said.

Earlier this month, it announced a $16 billion acquisition of Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. The announcement sparked a selloff of Walmart shares, likely a result of the big ticket price.

Walmart said it expects its Flipkart investment to reduce fiscal year 2019 earnings per share by about 25 cents to 30 cents, if the transaction closes at the end of the second quarter.

Is also recently reached agreements to sell its banking operations in Walmart Canada and Walmart Chile, it said on Thursday.

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