Wal-Mart Stores posted its seventh consecutive quarterly drop in sales at existing US stores and said it will take some time to turn around sales in that unit.
The world's largest retailer has struggled with pricing as it has lost customers to dollar stores while it also is still recovering from a poorly executed decision, since reversed, to pare down the number of items it offered.
"Some of the pricing and merchandising issues in Wal-Mart ran deeper than we initially expected, and they require a response that will take time to see results," chief executive Mike Duke said in a statement.
The results and comments about future sales were in contrast to company optimism in the fall, when Wal-Mart said fourth-quarter same-store sales at its namesake US stores should rise, even though its official forecast suggested a decline of 1 per cent to a rise of 2 per cent.
The company forecast US same-store sales in the current first quarter to be down 2 per cent to flat.
While Wal-Mart has expanded into more than a dozen countries and is ripe for further international growth, the US stores still represent the lion's share of its business. More than 62 per cent of its $418.95 billion in fiscal 2011 sales came from the US discount stores, and sales in the unit are key to pleasing Wall Street.
Wal-Mart shares fell 1.3 per cent to $54.65 in premarket trading, as the disappointing sales overshadowed earnings that beat analysts expectations.
Wal-Mart earned $5.02 billion, or $1.41 per share, in the fourth quarter ended on January 31st, up from $4.82 billion, or $1.26 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, earnings were $1.34 a share.
Sales overall rose 2.5 per cent to $115.6 billion, short of analysts' expectations of $117.7 billion. Sales at US stores open at least a year fell 1.8 per cent.