Walmart’s commitment of low prices proves to be a powerful draw in the third quarter

recent YORK — Walmart ratcheted up sales and profits again in the third quarter with its comparatively low prices proving a powerful draw for shoppers seeking to cut spending where they could.

The country’s largest retailer raised its outlook for the year as well and shares rose nearly 4% in premarket buying and selling Tuesday.

Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, reported net profits of $4.58 billion, or 57 cents per distribute, in the three months ended Oct. 31. That compares with $453 billion, or 6 cents per distribute in the year-ago period.

Adjusted profits were 58 cents per distribute, five cents better than Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by FactSet.

Sales rose 5.5% to $169.59 billion, up from $160.8 billion in the year-ago period, and also easily beat analyst projections.

Comparable store sales — which include online and stores open for the history 12 months — rose 5.3% in the U.S. That is an acceleration from the 4.2% jump in the U.S. in the second quarter and 3.8% in the first quarter.

Sales reflect broad-based strength across all product categories and physical and digital channels, the business said.

Global e-commerce sales rose 27%, compared with 21% in the budgetary second and first quarter.

Walmart is among the first major U.S. retailers to update quarterly results and provides a peek into how Americans are feeling as they head into the holiday shopping period. Industry analysts expect consumers to display up in force, though sales may not meet last year spending levels by Americans.

A post-pandemic expense boost spike sent prices about 20% higher overall compared with three years ago and it soured Americans’ outlook on the economy, a key rationale given by voters for sending Donald Trump back to the White House.

Yet even as many complained of how costs have strained household budgets, powerful customer spending, continues to drive steady growth in the U.S. economy. Retail sales rose 0.4% from September to October, the Commerce Department said Friday, a solid boost though it was half of the previous month’s jump.

Analysts will be sifting through Walmart’s results and may seek more information from business executives regarding Trump’s proposed tariffs during a conference call Tuesday. Trump has vowed that he’ll put a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.

Companies have already rerouted some production away from China, but an aggressive trade policy could accelerate those plans.

Shoe brand Steve Madden announced earlier this month that it will be be cutting the goods that it imports from China by as much as 45% next year.

For the current budgetary year, Walmart expects profits per distribute in the range of $2.42 to $2.47. That’s up from its August projections for per-distribute profits of between $2.35 and $2.43. Analysts expect $2.45 per distribute, according to FactSet.

The business also expects sales to boost by 4.8% to 5.1% for the year, up from a range of 3.75% to 4.75%.