Walmart shares plunged almost 9% Thursday, erasing approximately $81.2 billion from the retailer’s market capitalization after its weakest U.S. comparable sales growth in six years raised concerns about consumer demand.
WMT traded near $104.10 at 12:23 p.m. ET, down $10.20 from Wednesday’s $114.30 close. The stock fell as low as $102.85 during the session, briefly recording a double digit decline.
Based on Walmart’s approximately 7.96 billion outstanding shares, the $10.20 decline removed an estimated $81.2 billion from its market value. The company’s capitalization fell from roughly $910 billion to around $829 billion on an implied basis.
The selloff was not caused by an earnings or total revenue miss. Walmart exceeded both expectations. Investors instead focused on slowing growth inside its core U.S. retail operation and a weaker than expected forecast for the current quarter.
Walmart’s U.S. Sales Miss Breaks Five Year Streak
Walmart generated quarterly revenue of $187.94 billion, representing a 5.9% increase from the previous year and exceeding the approximately $186.82 billion expected by analysts.
Adjusted earnings reached $0.81 per share, beating the $0.74 consensus estimate. Operating income increased 28.8% to approximately $9.4 billion, although that result benefited from a $2.9 billion tariff refund.
The weakness appeared inside Walmart U.S., where comparable sales excluding fuel increased only 2.6%. Analysts had expected growth of approximately 3.7% to 3.8%.
The result marked Walmart’s first U.S. comparable sales miss in more than five years and its slowest growth rate since 2020. Comparable sales had increased 4.1% during the preceding quarter.
Customer traffic rose only 1.5%, slowing from 3% in the previous quarter. That slowdown indicated that Walmart’s recent price reductions had not yet produced the stronger customer growth expected by investors.
Falling Pharmacy Prices Weigh on Comparable Sales
Lower prescription drug prices were a significant drag on Walmart’s U.S. performance.
Federal Medicare pricing changes reduced revenue within the retailer’s health and wellness operation. Excluding that business, Walmart’s U.S. comparable sales would have increased approximately 3.4%.
That adjusted figure would still have fallen below Wall Street’s forecast, but it shows that pharmacy deflation accounted for a meaningful portion of the reported slowdown.
Higher fuel prices also pressured lower income households, leaving them with less money for discretionary purchases. Management said fuel related expenses were expected to exceed its original annual forecast by more than $2 billion.
Walmart has reduced prices on approximately 11,000 products and plans to use most of its $2.9 billion tariff refund to support further grocery and general merchandise discounts through the end of the year.
Those reductions could help Walmart defend or expand its market share. However, continued price investment also creates uncertainty about near term profit margins.
Weak Third Quarter Forecast Overshadows Higher Annual Guidance
The largest disappointment came from Walmart’s third quarter outlook.
The retailer expects quarterly sales growth of between 3% and 3.75%, considerably below the approximately 4.9% expected by analysts. Adjusted earnings are projected at $0.62 to $0.64 per share, compared with Wall Street’s forecast of around $0.67.
Walmart nevertheless raised its full year sales growth forecast to between 4% and 5%. It also increased its adjusted earnings guidance to between $2.80 and $2.87 per share.
However, the midpoint of the earnings range remains below the approximately $2.90 analysts expected. Investors consequently looked past the higher annual forecast and concentrated on the weaker immediate outlook.
Walmart’s official fiscal 2027 second quarter earnings materials showed that the company remains profitable and continues expanding overall revenue. The concern is the pace of future growth rather than a current operating loss.
Walmart’s Online Business Remains Strong
Not every part of Walmart’s business slowed.
Global e-commerce sales increased 23%, including 24% growth in the United States. Walmart Connect, the company’s U.S. advertising business, expanded 43%.
The results demonstrate that Walmart continues attracting online customers and building higher margin businesses outside conventional store sales.
However, that growth was not enough to offset concerns about the rare comparable sales miss, slower customer traffic and cautious spending among lower income households.
WMTon Falls 10.7%
Walmart’s decline quickly spread to the tokenized stock market.
Walmart’s Ondo tokenized stock, WMTon, traded near $104.79 after falling 10.7% over 24 hours. The token moved between $104.34 and $117.47 during the period.
WMTon recorded approximately $692,000 in trading volume, representing an increase of about 56% from the previous day. Its circulating market capitalization stood at approximately $2.11 million, based on around 20,146 tokens.
The token was also trading about 22.5% below its May all time high of $135.25, according to CoinGecko.
WMTon’s market capitalization represents only the value of the circulating token supply. It should not be confused with Walmart’s corporate market value.
Verdict for WMT and WMTon
Walmart’s decline is primarily a reaction to slowing growth inside its core U.S. business rather than weak headline earnings.
Revenue, adjusted earnings, e-commerce and advertising all increased. However, the rare comparable sales miss, slower traffic and below consensus third quarter forecast challenged the premium valuation investors had assigned to Walmart.
Pharmacy deflation explains part of the slowdown, while the company’s growing digital and advertising operations remain important strengths.
Nevertheless, Thursday’s approximately $81 billion market value loss shows that investors are placing greater importance on future consumer demand than on one quarter’s revenue and earnings beat.