Wal-Mart Tops Quarterly Forecasts; Same-Store Sales Rise 3.1%

The retailer plans to add 8% to retail square footage this year.

Author:: Yi Ping Ho
Publish date:: Feb 20, 2001 8:03 AM EST

The retailer plans to add 8% to retail square footage this year.

Wal-Mart Stores

posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts' lowered expectations by a penny, thanks to a 3.1% rise in same-store sales for the quarter.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailer said fourth-quarter earnings were $2 billion, or 45 cents a share, compared with $1.9 billion, or 43 cents a share, in the same period last year. According to a poll by

First Call/Thomson Financial

, 22 analysts expected fourth-quarter earnings of 44 cents a share.

Sales for the quarter were $56.6 billion, up from $51.4 billion last year.

"It was a good year but a year that was not quite up to our high Wal-Mart expectations. In a difficult economic environment, we will spend almost $9 billion in capital expenditures and add approximately 8% to our retail square footage," the company said.

Wal-Mart closed at $52.36 in Friday trading on the

New York Stock Exchange

, near the middle of its 52-week range of $41.40 to $64.90.