Walmart’s Results Beat Expectations And Hiked Its Outlook For The Year. Its Stock Plunged Anyway.

Walmart's stock plunged on Thursday even though the company's results beat expectations and hiked its outlook for the year.

Concretely, the company said revenue rose 5.9% in the fiscal second quarter, buoyed largely by e-commerce sales, which jumped 23%.

However, U.S. comparable sales grew 2.6%, below the 3.5% analysts had expected, CNBC noted. Its stock was falling about 7.5% in premarket trading.

Walmart also said it expects net sales to increase between 3% and 3.75% and adjusted earnings per share to stand between 62 and 64 cents.

CFO John David Rainey told CNBC that the company's "business is strong" and feels "really good about the progress" it's making.

Rainey went on to say that Walmart is eligible to get some $2.9 billion in tariff refunds, and plans to use the funds to keep prices low for consumers. The impact of the decision, he said, will be seen in the third quarter.

The decision takes place in a context where Walmart is seeing consumers going through economic woes, largely as a result of increased gas prices due to the war in Iran.

"But consumers are still spending, and real wage growth is keeping pace, and so they've been very resilient in this environment," he told CNBC.

"But all that said, we would love to be able to bring prices down more and see less pressure on their wallets."