Walmart proved to be the victim of its own success on Tuesday. The discount retailer’s shares plunged 10% (shedding $31 billion in market cap) after it unnerved investors by reporting a sharper than expected decline in online sales growth. (Most of that was to be expected as it come a year after its 2016 $3 billion acquisition of Jet.com.) Walmart said that online U.S. sales had risen 23% during the holiday quarter, a far cry from the 50% clip in the preceding quarter and the 63% quarterly gain of not that long ago.
Comments are closed.