US retail giant Wal-Mart Wednesday said it reported a 2.9% fall in its third quarter net profit to $3.3 billion (£2.07bn; 2.43bn euros) , compared with the same period last year, MarketWatch website reported.
On the other hand, sales jumped 8.1% to $110.2 billion, the reports said. Asda, which is a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart, reported like-for-like sales up 1.3% despite fewer car trips by shoppers in the face of high petrol prices.
The earnings of Asda were for the three months ended September.
The sales at Wal-Mart’s US discount stores open at least a year rose a better than expected 1.3% during the third quarter, ending a run of nine consecutive quarterly falls.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, Walmart forecast earnings per share in a range of $US1.42 and $US1.48, compared with the year-ago EPS of $US1.41.
The retailer’s EPS guidance was in line with the average analyst estimate of $US1.45 for the fourth quarter and $US4.49 for the year.
“During the heavy promotional period leading up to Christmas, Asda would maintain its promise to be 10% cheaper than other supermarkets on comparable baskets or refund the difference,” said Doug McMillion, President and Chief Executive of Wal-Mart International.
Asda opened 83 Asda stores in the quarter, including 77 conversions of stores formerly belonging to Danish discount retailer Netto. Asda bought Netto’s UK stores for £778m in 2010. Now, Asda has a total of 542 stores across UK.
Wal-Mart Stores is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores.
