Walmart Inc. is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Thursday and UBS analysts think the results will show that Amazon.com Inc.’s big Prime Day event was a plus for both companies.
“Walmart likely saw tailwinds from online grocery,” analysts led by Michael Lasser wrote about the second quarter, noting that the perk was offered at about 56% of Walmart locations. “Also it likely benefited from broad increased digital engagement around Prime Day . Though Amazon’s move to one-day shipping on 10 million-plus Prime items could have offset any benefit from Walmart’s free, next day offer on 220,000 items.
FactSet is guiding for overall same-store sales growth of 2.4%, with the same, 2.4% growth, expected in the U.S. “We believe value-oriented broadline retailers Walmart and Target are better positioned to capture share as shopper trends evolve. Meanwhile department store players are getting squeezed and are working to quickly adapt to changing shopper preferences as physical traffic continues to decline.”