Walmart Falls 8.8% After U.S. Comps Miss on Drug Pricing

Walmart shares fell 8.8% in Thursday afternoon trading after fiscal second-quarter U.S. same-store sales missed Wall Street’s estimate. Total revenue and earnings both beat, and management raised its full-year guide. The tape traded on the miss.

The Q2 beat, and the U.S. comp that didn’t

Total revenue came in at $187.94 billion, up 5.9% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings per share landed at $0.81 — both above consensus, per Reuters and CNBC coverage of today’s release. Global eCommerce grew 23%. But Walmart U.S. same-store sales grew only 2.6%, short of the 3.5% Wall Street had modeled. Traffic still rose, and average ticket grew, only more slowly than in recent quarters.

Where the 80-basis-point drag came from

Walmart said its health and wellness category cost 80 basis points of the U.S. comp figure this quarter. The rest ran closer to 3.4%. The drag traces to lower reimbursement on prescription drugs under Medicare’s Maximum Fair Pricing rules, which took effect January 1 and cap what Walmart’s pharmacies can charge for a set of covered drugs. Lower prices at the counter show up in retail comps as a headline miss even when unit demand holds up. Walmart flagged the same mechanism in prior-quarter filings and identified health and wellness as the source of today’s drag.

A raised year, and a softer Q3 EPS

Full-year fiscal 2027 constant-currency net sales growth is now guided at 4.0% to 5.0%, up from 3.5% to 4.5%. Adjusted operating income growth was lifted to 7.0% to 8.5% from 6.0% to 8.0%. Adjusted EPS was moved to $2.80 to $2.87 from $2.75 to $2.85. The current quarter reads softer. Management guided Q3 consolidated constant-currency net sales growth of 3.0% to 3.75% and operating income growth of 2.0% to 4.0%. Adjusted EPS for Q3 was set at $0.62 to $0.64, below where the Street had been.

The $2.9 billion tariff refund

CFO John David Rainey told investors Walmart is eligible for $2.9 billion of tariff refunds. He said the company plans to spend the money lowering prices, with the effect landing in the third quarter. That reads as pass-through rather than margin. It also explains why the full-year sales-and-income guide was lifted while Q3 EPS was guided soft.

Down 7% on the month, 4% above the 90-day low

Walmart’s afternoon print of $104.20 puts the stock 7.1% below where it traded 30 sessions ago, and 16.7% under its 90-day peak of $134.20 reached in mid-May. Volume ran 2.5 times the 20-day average as the tape opened. That is earnings-scale trade. Shares now sit within 4% of their 90-day floor.

The wider market moved with it. The S&P 500 was down 0.55%, the Dow off 0.91%, and the Nasdaq off 0.94% in early afternoon, at two-week lows. Reuters cited Walmart’s results, alongside a climb in bond yields, in the session’s risk-off framing.

On the calendar

The next Walmart print is Q3 FY27, scheduled for November 19 per the company’s investor-relations feed — the quarter when the $2.9 billion tariff refund is set to flow through. The Medicare drug-pricing rules that shaved 80 basis points off this quarter’s comp remain in effect. Whether investors settle on treating that pressure as noise, or as a new baseline, is the question the rest of the year answers. That answer is not in today’s tape.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.