Walmart Inc. shares jumped further into record territory Tuesday amid a busy day for the discount retail giant, which reported a beat in earnings, confirmed a $2.3 billion deal for l purchase of smart TV maker Vizio Holding Corp. VZIO,
and increased the dividend by 9%.
Regarding the deal with Vizio, Seth Dallaire, Walmart’s U.S. chief revenue officer, said he believes Vizio “provides great viewing experiences at attractive prices” and “enables a profitable advertising business that is rapidly expanding “.
Under the terms of the agreement, Walmart WMT,
will pay $11.50 for each Vizio VZIO share,
outstanding, representing a 20.7% premium to Friday’s closing price of $9.53.
Walmart expects the deal to slightly reduce earnings in the near term, given transaction-related costs such as employee retention and technology integration.
Walmart shares rose 2.2% in premarket trading, while Vizio shares rose 15.3%. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the companies have been discussing a deal.
The downside for Walmart is that the company provided a lower-than-expected profit outlook for the current quarter.
For the quarter ended Jan. 31, Walmart reported net income that fell to $5.49 billion, or $2.03 per share, from $6.28 billion, or $2.32 per share, in same period as one year ago. Excluding one-off items, adjusted earnings per share of $1.80 beat the FactSet consensus of $1.64.
Total revenue grew 5.7% to $173.39 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $170.85 billion.
U.S. same-store sales, or stores open at least a year, rose 4.0%, beating the FactSet consensus of 3.3% growth, while Sam’s Club same-store sales increased by 3.1% exceeding expectations of a 2.7% increase.
Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.48 to $1.56, below the FactSet consensus of $1.60, and guides for full-year adjusted EPS of between $6.70 and $7.12 compared to expectations of $7.06.
Walmart raised its annual dividend rate from $2.28 to $2.49 per share. The company said the 9.2% increase represents its largest dividend increase in more than 10 years.
After the three-for-one stock split takes effect on Feb. 26, the annual dividend rate will be 83 cents per share and the quarterly dividend will be 20.75 cents per share. The new dividend will be paid on April 1 to shareholders of record on March 15.
Based on Friday’s closing stock price of $170.36, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.46%, which compares to the S&P 500 SPX Index’s implied yield of 1. ,43%.
The stock has rallied 9.7% over the past three months through Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
advanced by 9.9%.