They had an earnings miss, but Warren Buffett just bought more WMT stock.
Kevin is right - I worked in retail and bricks and mortar retailing is always, i repeat always, a disaster waiting to happen. Walmart is a dinosaur. And like a dinosaur it doesn't know it yet. Fact- the more stores you open, the more marginal the areas that you are moving into. Logically, you open where you do best - in Walmart's case - the South East. Fact - you beat up the inefficient local shops easily when you enter the market. That doesn't last as you move across the map - eventually you find yourself competing with Costco, Target, and Family Dollar or Dollar General. You may be better but they aren't as easy to dislodge than a mom and pop shop. Fact - you placed your shops where the market was best - when you opened - but ten years have past and the neighborhood isn't the same - your parking lot looks beat up - your store looks beat up - you need to renovate and make everything fresh. Meanwhile new retaillers are moving into the newer parts of town and have fresher looking stores.
Now twenty years have past - and although the parents still are loyal to Walmart - their grown children think Walmart is for their parents but not for them. They buy online or someplace else.
Finally you have a business built on getting very low cost products from the Far East fast and efficiently into the stores but now the Far East countries have moved up economically - their workers are paid more - and the cheap products aren't so cheap.
In retail you can be chasing one or two of three goals - price - service - or selection. Wallmart chose price and selection. They can never compete on service because they don't have enough margin to do it. That's why the shelves are empty - because they can't find enough minimum wage workers and give them enough hours to fill the shelves because it would destroy their profit margin.
Growth is slowing. The stock market likes to see increases from one quarter to the next. One year over the next. etc. Wal-Mart is so huge, increases in sales (and profit) every quarter becomes "nearly" impossible.
Sooner or later, Wal-Mart will build one store too many. And then the precipitous downward spiral will begin.
Just like people, many corporations have a life cycle, which eventually leads to death. Like Sears or JCPenney, life can be prolonged - but it is on life support, unable to take a major hit.
(imagine the laughter and derision in the board rooms of JCPENNEY and Sears back in the mid 60's, when they first heard and discussed an Arkansas "hillbilly" (Sam Walton) that was "re-inventing" the retail market.)
Which WalMart stock is it that you speak of?
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=WMT&t=1m...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=WMT&t=5y...
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=WMT&t=my...
Maybe you need to look more carefully?
bad earnings - http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/video/12...
on the side: it goes up every year after christmas time,,,
Learn to use Yahoo Finance
Read the news under the chart !!!!
personally,, i blame extreme cold weather in winter,,, ex: I had a $400 electric bill,,, when you only have so much cash to spend,,, something gets cut.
Hello, I was just looking over Wal marts stock & it's taking a pretty quick & hard hit. What is causing it?
