Executive Summary: From Promise to Performance#

The Earnings Inflection: Results Validate Strategic Thesis#

Walmart delivered a decisive affirmation of its strategic vision on 19 November 2025, when third-quarter results demonstrated that the company's carefully choreographed transformation narrative—announced across October through the OpenAI partnership and articulated in prior earnings calls—is translating into concrete financial performance. The retailer reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.58, exceeding consensus expectations of $0.53 by approximately 9.4 percent, while revenue of $169.59 billion marginally surpassed the forecast of $167.72 billion. More significantly, adjusted earnings per share growth reached nearly 14 percent year-over-year, a pace that validates the thesis that Walmart is evolving from a mature, single-digit-growth retailer into a technology-enabled platform capturing multiple vectors of profitable growth simultaneously. The guidance increase—with full-year net sales now projected to grow between 4.8 and 5.1 percent, versus the prior forecast of 3.75 to 4.75 percent—signaled management confidence that the momentum captured in the quarter will persist through the holiday season and into the new fiscal year. For institutional investors evaluating whether WMT's premium valuation of approximately 28 times trailing earnings remains justified, the third-quarter result provides the essential evidence that execution risk is declining and that the architectural transformation outlined in October announcements is delivering measurable profit acceleration.