Wal-Mart Lifts Guidance; Shares Rise

Wal-Mart raised its full-year earnings guidance to $3.95 to $4.05 a share from $3.90 to $4 a share citing strength in its underlying performance despite challenges in the economy.

Author:
Andrea Tse
Publish date:
Aug 17, 2010 9:31 AM EDT

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (

TheStreet

) --

Wal-Mart

(WMT) - Get Walmart Inc. Report

raised its full-year earnings guidance to $3.95 to $4.05 a share from $3.90 to $4 a share, citing strength in its underlying operating performance for the first two quarters despite the challenges in the economy.

Wal-Mart shares rose 1% to $50.89 in premarket trading Tuesday, and was trading at $50.85 at the opening bell.

On average, analysts expect full-year earnings of $4 a share on revenue of $427.39 billion. Wal-Mart anticipates third-quarter earnings in the range of 87 cents a share to 91 cents a share, compared with 82 cents a share last year and vs. the target of 91 cents a share target predicted by Wall Street.

For the second quarter, Wal-Mart reported income from continuing operations attributable to Wal-Mart of $3.6 billion, or 97 cents a share, up from $3.5 billion, or 89 cents, last year. The consensus estimate was 96 cents a share.

Wal-Mart said second-quarter net sales were $103 billion, up 2.8%; analysts estimated sales of $105.4 billion.

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