Walmart Reports Positive Fourth-Quarter Earnings and Strong Online Sales

Walmart released fourth-quarter earnings that were in line with what analysts expected. While Walmart’s brick-and-mortar stores saw some growth, it was the e-commerce segment that really stood out in the last quarter of 2025.

For Q4 2025, Walmart’s revenue reached $180.55 billion, squeaking by analysts’ expectations of $180.01 billion, according to CNBC, and beating Q4 2024’s $173.39 billion. Net income dropped from $5.49 billion to $5.25 billion compared to the same period last year.

In the U.S., store transactions increased by 2.8%, with customers spending an average of 1.8% more at the register year over year. Same-store sales, which measure sales at locations open for at least a year, rose 4.6%.

U.S. online sales for the retail behemoth surged 20% for the period that ended on Jan. 31, which included the holiday shopping season. Globally, the company’s e-commerce business jumped 16%.

While Walmart showed some positive gains for the quarter, CFO John David Rainey believes the numbers could have been better. Winter weather and the California wildfires put a dent in sales, but with these events being temporary, he doesn’t suspect any change in consumer spending going forward.

Looking Ahead for Walmart

Global advertising, membership revenue, and fulfillment services, which assists third-party sellers with packing and shipping, significantly contributed to the company’s solid fourth-quarter figures. While substantially smaller than Amazon’s advertising and third-party platform, Walmart is making significant strides in this segment.

“These are all higher margin, faster-growing parts of our business where the math is just suggesting that our margins are going up over time,” Rainey told CNBC. “And frankly, I don’t see any end to this.”

Despite looming tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, Walmart doesn’t seem concerned. Roughly 66% of the retailer’s items are manufactured or grown in the U.S., but if the tariffs are ultimately implemented, Walmart already has a plan.

“We’ve lived in a tariff environment for the last seven or eight years, and we’ll do what we know how to do,” Rainey explained. “We’ll work with suppliers. We’ll lean into our private brand. We’ll shift supply where necessary to try to take advantage of lower costs that we can then pass on to consumers.”

Looking forward to fiscal year 2026, Walmart predicts 3%-4% in net sales growth. On an adjusted basis, operating income will likely grow between 3.5% and 5.5%.