Fly Intel: What to watch in Walmart earnings report

Walmart (WMT) is scheduled to report results of its third quarter before the market open on Thursday, November 15, with a conference call scheduled for 7:00 am EDT. What to watch for: 1. OUTLOOK: Walmart previously raised its fiscal 2019 EPS view to $4.90-$5.05 and narrowed its net sales view to up about 2%, but cut its EPS outlook at its investor meeting in October to $4.65-$4.80. The current Street forecast for FY19 EPS stands at $4.79 on revenue of $515.73B. The company previously said it was moving to an annual guidance framework with its quarterly updates, and that while there may be fluctuations within the quarters, "we believe EPS growth will be relatively consistent across the year." Looking ahead, Walmart, at its investor day, forecast total FY20 sales growth to be 3% or greater. Walmart U.S. comp sales growth is expected to be 2.5%-3% and eCommerce net sales growth is expected to be around 35% for FY20, it said. Baird analyst Peter Benedict said he has an upward bias to its U.S. comps expectations after the management's "bullish" tone at last month's investor meeting. The analyst added that the prospects for sustained momentum also appear to be good given the "multiple in-store and online initiatives converging" and the backdrop for consumer spending remaining firm. 2. FLIPKART: On Tuesday, Walmart said in a regulatory filing that Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal had resigned following an independent investigation done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct. Walmart said Bansal "strongly denied" the allegation, but "Nevertheless, we had a responsibility to ensure the investigation was deliberate and thorough. While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation. Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign." 3. COMPETITION: Retailers like Walmart have been hurt by an increase in online shopping on sites like Amazon (AMZN) rather than at brick-and-mortar stores. Walmart's Levittown, New York store is a testing ground for the company's Project Kepler team, The Information reported earlier this month. The team is developing high-tech store concepts for the retailer to test cashierless checkout, among other applications, and Walmart is using the cameras to test the accuracy of its systems for automatically identifying the items shoppers remove from shelves, a person who confirmed that Levittown is part of Walmart's Kepler team efforts. Grocers are enlisting robots and artificial intelligence to boost efficiency as competition for consumer spending rises and venture-capital firms have invested over $1.2B in grocery technology this year, double the total for 2017, the Wall Street Journal previously said. Innovation is building an automated system for packing online grocery orders at a Walmart store in New Hampshire, the publication said. In October, Walmart announced plans for its first "high-tech" grocery distribution center.