Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported on Tuesday record sales and earnings for the quarter ended Jan. 31, 2007.

The world's largest retailer's net sales for the fourth quarter were 98.09 billion dollars, up 10.9 percent over the same period of fiscal year 2006 but below the 99.95 billion dollars forecast by analysts, according to a press release issued by the company.

Its income from continuing operations for the quarter was 3.94 billion dollars, or 95 cents per share, up 8.8 percent from year- ago level. The earnings beat the 90 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2007, Wal-Mart's net sales rose by 11.7 percent to 344.99 billion dollars from the previous year. Its profit from continuing operations increased 6.7 percent to 12.18 billion from a year before.

The retailer's earnings per share for the fiscal year were 2.92 dollars, compared to 2.72 dollars for the prior year.

"We are extremely pleased to close fiscal year 2007 with both record sales and earnings," said Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's president and chief executive officer.

"Our company's performance for the fiscal year was helped by a strong fourth quarter. Even if you take into account the discontinued operations, we still had record results," he said.

Wal-Mart expects its same-store sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 to rise by 1 percent to 3 percent, and its earnings per share to come in between 68 cents and 71 cents.

For the full fiscal 2008, the company expects per-share earnings of between 3.15 dollars and 3.23 dollars.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were forecasting earnings of 68 cents per share for the first quarter and 3.19 dollars per share for the full fiscal year for Wal-Mart.

Source: Xinhua