Wal-Mart Posts Earnings Gain, Issues Warning

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 23%, slightly better than expectations, but warned that increasing costs could pressure growth this year.

The world’s largest retailer said net income rose to $1.92 billion, or 43 cents a share, from $1.56 billion, or 35 cents, a year ago as sales grew at its U.S. superstores and international profit nearly doubled. Total sales jumped 26% to $51.4 billion.

Analysts were expecting 42 cents, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 6.3%, capping what Chief Financial Officer Thomas Schoewe called a “tremendous” year.

Company executives cautioned, however, that rising oil prices and labor costs will make it more difficult to keep cutting prices and that last year’s sales gains will be hard to match.

Even so, executives said they expect Wal-Mart to meet forecasts for first-quarter earnings of 28 cents a share.

Shares in Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart closed off 88 cents at $58 on the New York Stock Exchange.

At a Glance

Other earnings, excluding one-time gains or charges unless noted:

RETAILING:

* Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 27% to $76.7 million, or 73 cents a share, in line with estimates, as sales jumped 21% to $368 million. Sales at stores open at least a year increased 3%.

* Spiegel Inc., the catalog and Net retailer of apparel and other goods, said fourth-quarter profit climbed 80% to $74.7 million, or 57 cents a share, well above the 46 cents analysts expected, as more customers used its private-label credit cards and holiday sales rose. Sales increased 11% to $1.13 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year at the Eddie Bauer unit grew 3%.

* Zale Corp.’s fiscal second-quarter profit rose 31% to $84 million, or $2.33 a share, exceeding forecasts of $2.27, with a boost from the Peoples Jewelers chain it acquired last year. The jewelry retailer’s sales climbed 30% to $736 million, and sales at stores open at least a year jumped 15%.

OTHER INDUSTRIES:

* BP Amoco said profit more than doubled in the fourth quarter to $2.12 billion, or 9 cents a share, from $866 million, or 3 cents, on rising oil prices and cost cutting. The results matched analyst expectations.