Rubbish Check
Forbes Business · August 20, 2026
source“Walmart Shares Sink 8% After Slowest U.S. Sales Growth Since 2020”
R3/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates Forbes' claim that Walmart shares sank on its "slowest U.S. sales growth since 2020" a 3/10 because the underlying figures check out against multiple outlets and the primary earnings release, though the headline's stock-drop number outpaces the 7.3% figure the article's own body reports.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The comp-sales and drop framing is corroborated across outlets and matches Walmart's own reported numbers, but the "8%" headline figure sits above the 7.3% intraday drop Forbes cites in its own body text, and the headline omits that Walmart beat on both earnings and revenue and raised guidance, details buried in paragraph one rather than the headline.
What actually happened
Walmart reported fiscal Q2 revenue of $187.9 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.81, both ahead of Wall Street estimates, and raised its full-year guidance. But U.S. comparable sales grew just 2.6%, missing the roughly 3.5-3.67% Wall Street had expected, largely because Medicare drug-price negotiations cut into pharmacy sales by 0.8 percentage points. Walmart's 2.6% comparable sales increase in the U.S. represented its slowest growth rate in six years, despite transaction growth providing some support. Shares fell sharply on the miss despite the earnings beat.
Key facts
- Walmart shares fell around 6% in premarket trading on Thursday after the retail giant reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings and revenue, but disappointed investors with weaker comparable sales growth at its U.S. stores.
- Adjusted earnings came in at $0.81 per share, beating the analyst consensus of $0.74; revenue increased 5.9% year on year to $187.9 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $186.75 billion.
- U.S. comparable sales excluding fuel increased 2.6%, well below the 3.67% consensus estimate.
- Forbes' own article states shares dropped 7.3% shortly after the open, "pacing the stock's largest intraday loss since May 21 (7.2%)," a smaller figure than the "8%" in the headline.
- Mizuho analyst David Bellinger described the results as a "worst-case scenario" and a "very messy print and one of the biggest misses in years from WMT."
- The 2020 comparison point (Q4 2020 growth of 1.9%) is a pandemic-distorted base, a detail Forbes does disclose in its body but not its headline.
What to watch for
Watch whether the 0.8-point pharmacy headwind from Medicare drug negotiations persists into next year, as Walmart's CFO indicated it likely will. Also worth tracking: whether the $2.9 billion in tariff refunds (of which Walmart has collected under $100 million) actually flow through to lower consumer prices next quarter, and whether the $2 billion fuel-cost headwind for 2026 shows up in the next earnings call's guidance revisions.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
