Opening the filing
10-K
General Walmart Inc. ("Walmart," the "Company" or "we") is a people-led, technology-powered omnichannel retailer dedicated to helping people around the world save money and live better by providing the opportunity to shop in both retail stores and through eCommerce, and to access our other service offerings. Through innovation, we strive to continuously improve a customer-centric experience that seamlessly integrates our eCommerce and retail stores in an omnichannel offering that saves time for our customers. Each week, we serve approximately 280 million customers who visit more than 10,900 stores in 19 countries and through our numerous eCommerce websites and mobile applications.
Our strategy is to make every day easier for busy families, operate with discipline, sharpen our culture and become more digital, and make trust a competitive advantage. Making life easier for busy families includes our commitment to price leadership, which has been and will remain a cornerstone of our business, as well as increasing convenience to save our customers time. By leading on price, we earn the trust of our customers every day by providing a broad assortment of quality merchandise and services at everyday low prices ("EDLP"). EDLP is our pricing philosophy under which we price items at a low price every day so our customers trust that our prices will not change under frequent promotional activity. Everyday low cost ("EDLC") is our commitment to control expenses so our cost savings can be passed along to our customers.
Our operations comprise three reportable segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam's Club U.S. Our fiscal year ends on January 31 for our United States ("U.S.") and Canadian operations. We consolidate all other operations generally using a one-month lag and on a calendar year basis. Our discussion is as of, and for the fiscal years ended, January 31, 2026 ("fiscal 2026"), January 31, 2025 ("fiscal 2025") and January 31, 2024 ("fiscal 2024"). During fiscal 2026, we generated total revenues of $713.2 billion, which primarily comprised net sales of $706.4 billion.
We maintain our principal offices in Bentonville, Arkansas. Our common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "WMT."
The Development of Our Company The businesses conducted by our founders began in 1945 when Sam M. Walton opened a franchise Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas. In 1946, his brother, James L. Walton, opened a similar store in Versailles, Missouri. Until 1962, our founders' business was devoted entirely to the operation of variety stores, at which time we began to open discount stores. We completed our initial public offering in 1970. In 1983, we opened our first Sam's Club, and in 1988, we opened our first supercenter. In 1998, we opened our first Walmart Neighborhood Market. In 1991, we began our first international initiative when we entered into a joint venture in Mexico and, as of January 31, 2026, our Walmart International segment conducted business in 18 countries.
S&P 500 Index 100.00 123.29 113.16 136.72 172.78 201.03
S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Distribution & Retailing Index 100.00 108.64 88.85 114.73 161.20 164.12
Issuer Repurchases of Equity Securities From time to time, the Company repurchases shares of its common stock under share repurchase programs authorized by the Company's Board of Directors. Any repurchased shares are constructively retired and returned to an unissued status. All repurchases during fiscal 2026 were made under the $20.0 billion share repurchase program approved in November 2022, of which authorization for $4.0 billion of share repurchases remained as of January 31, 2026. In February 2026, the Board of Directors approved a new $30.0 billion share repurchase authorization, which has no expiration date or other restrictions limiting the period over which the Company can make repurchases, and beginning February 23, 2026, replaced the remaining capacity under the prior authorization.
Share repurchase activity under our share repurchase programs, on a trade date basis, for each month in the quarter ended January 31, 2026, was as follows:
Fiscal Period
Retail square feet at period end 1,057 1,053 1,053 (1) Membership and other income includes membership fees and other items such as rental and tenant income, recycling income, gift card breakage income, as well as other income from corporate campus facilities.
(2) Gross profit is defined as net sales less cost of sales. Operating expenses refers to operating, selling, general and administrative expenses.
Our total revenues increased $32.2 billion or 4.7% and $32.9 billion or 5.1% for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, when compared to the previous fiscal year. These increases in revenues were primarily due to increases in net sales, which increased $31.9 billion or 4.7% and $31.9 billion or 5.0% for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, when compared to the previous fiscal year. The increases were primarily due to strong positive comparable sales across our U.S. segments and international markets. In fiscal 2026, growth was primarily driven by increases in average ticket and transactions, and also reflected growth in unit volumes, while fiscal 2025 growth was primarily driven by higher transactions and unit volumes. Both years include strength in eCommerce as well as strong sales in grocery and health and wellness, with fiscal 2026 also benefiting from improved sales in general merchandise. Net sales were negatively impacted by $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion of fluctuations in currency exchange rates during fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively.
Membership and other income increased $0.3 billion and $1.0 billion for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, primarily driven by growth in membership fee revenue globally, partially offset by decreases in certain other income items, including a reduction in recycling income in fiscal 2026.
Our gross profit rate increased 8 and 40 basis points for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, when compared to the previous fiscal year. The increase in fiscal 2026 was primarily driven by the Walmart U.S. segment, due to disciplined inventory management, as well as growth in higher margin businesses globally. The increase in fiscal 2025 was primarily driven by the Walmart U.S. segment, due to managing prices aligned to our competitive historic price gaps, as well as growth in higher margin businesses globally. In both years, the increases were partially offset by mix shifts into lower margin merchandise categories across segments, as well as ongoing channel and format mix shifts in the Walmart International segment.
Other gains and losses consist of certain non-operating items, such as changes in the fair value of our investments, which by their nature can fluctuate from period to period. Other gains and losses resulted in a net gain of $2.1 billion and a net loss of $0.8 billion in fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, primarily driven by changes in the fair value of our equity and other investments due to fluctuations in their underlying stock prices.
Our effective income tax rate was 24.4%, 23.4%, and 25.5% for fiscal 2026, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The increase in effective income tax rate in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal 2025 is primarily due to the share-based compensation charge recorded at the Company's PhonePe subsidiary, which provided no tax benefit. The decrease in effective tax rate in fiscal 2025 compared to fiscal 2024 is primarily due to the tax impact on changes in fair value of our investments. Our effective income tax rate may also fluctuate as a result of various factors, including changes in our assessment of unrecognized tax benefits, valuation allowances, business operations, acquisitions, investments, entry into new businesses and geographies, intercompany transactions, changes in tax law, changes in the administrative practices, principles, and interpretations related to tax, and the mix and size of earnings among our U.S. operations and international operations, which are subject to statutory rates that are generally higher than the U.S. statutory rate. The reconciliation from the U.S. statutory rate to the effective income tax rates for fiscal 2026, 2025 and 2024 is provided in Note 8 .
As a result of the factors discussed above, we reported $22.3 billion and $20.2 billion of consolidated net income for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, which represent increases of $2.1 billion and $3.9 billion for fiscal 2026 and 2025, respectively, when compared to the previous fiscal year. Diluted net income per common share attributable to Walmart ("EPS") was $2.73, $2.41 and $1.91 for fiscal 2026, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Walmart U.S. Segment
Fiscal Years Ended January 31, (Dollar amounts and retail square feet in millions)
Balances as of January 31, 2026 3,542 34,624 38,166 Our total outstanding long-term debt increased $2.2 billion during fiscal 2026, primarily due to issuances of long-term debt. Refer to Note 5 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for details on the issuances of long-term debt.
Estimated contractual interest payments associated with our long-term debt amount to $17.3 billion, with approximately $1.7 billion expected to be paid in fiscal 2027. Estimated interest payments are based on our principal amounts and expected maturities of all debt outstanding as of January 31, 2026, and assumes interest rates remain at current levels for our variable rate instruments.
Dividends Our total dividend payments were $7.5 billion, $6.7 billion and $6.1 billion for fiscal 2026, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Effective February 19, 2026, the Company approved the fiscal 2027 annual dividend of $0.99 per share, an increase over the fiscal 2026 annual dividend of $0.94 per share. For fiscal 2027, the annual dividend will be paid in four quarterly installments of $0.2475 per share, according to the following record and payable dates:
Record Date
Payable Date