Walmart shares fell 9.15% to $103.84 on Thursday after the retailer issued weaker-than-expected third-quarter guidance, despite beating second-quarter estimates with adjusted earnings of $0.81 per share versus a $0.74 consensus and sales of $187.9 billion. UBS analyst Michael Lasser remains bullish, citing Walmart’s stable core business, automation and technology, and high-margin revenue streams. He highlighted 24% U.S. e-commerce growth and 38% U.S. advertising growth as support for the investment case. Walmart forecast third-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.62 to $0.64, below Wall Street’s $0.68 estimate. U.S. comparable sales rose 2.6%, the smallest quarterly increase since 2020, while pharmacy deflation linked to maximum fair price regulations created a 125-basis-point headwind. Shares were up 0.39% in Friday premarket trading, but were down 6.79% year to date, up 1.24% over the past year and down 15.57% over six months.