Meet the more youthful, fitter Walmart (WMT) that is devouring market share from Target (TGT).
"I'd say this is not your grandfather's Walmart," Walmart CFO John David Rainey told Yahoo Finance on Thursday moments after the company shocked Wall Street with a blowout quarter and guidance raise.
Walmart stock rose about 1% in premarket trading.
That looks to be a fair assessment when comparing the second quarter results from Walmart and Target.
While Target aggressively marked down home goods and apparel and warned about lost profits from retail crime, Walmart is spinning a completely different story.
It's a story of a more expansive selection of groceries in stores and products online powering strong sales. It's a story of a retailer keeping prices low during a long stretch of inflation and cash-strapped consumers noticing the relative price gaps versus Target and traditional grocers.
It's also a story of a retailer that has regained its operational mojo, with tighter control around expenses and inventory thanks to a veteran CFO like Rainey.
"We think the result shows Walmart is leveraging solid sales growth," Stifel analyst Mark Astrachan said in a client note.
All in all, these factors drove a striking performance differential between Walmart and Target in the second quarter:
Walmart US customer traffic: +2.9%
Target: -4.8%
Walmart US comparable sales: +6.4%
Target comparable sales: -5.4%
Walmart US e-commerce sales: +24%
Target: -10.5%
Walmart lifted full-year EPS guidance to $6.36 to $6.46 from $6.10 to $6.20
Target slashed full-year EPS guidance to $7.00 to $8.00 from $7.75 to $8.75
"We're a different company than we were five or 10 years ago," Walmart's Rainey continued. "Historically, our value proposition has been known for everyday low prices and for providing that value for customers. And what we see right now is that convenience resonates just as much to our customer base. And if you're a household that makes over $100,000 a year, you value convenience just as much as the next person."
Sounds about on target.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on the banking crisis? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com
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