Walmex profit falls 6.1% to 11.027 billion pesos despite quarterly revenue growth
Key Facts
Walmart de México y Centroamérica, known as Walmex, reported net profit of 11.027 billion Mexican pesos in the third quarter of 2026, down 6.1% from 11.747 billion pesos in the same period a year earlier. The decline came despite a 3% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenue to 248.828 billion pesos in the period from July to September. The results highlight a widening gap between sales growth and profit trends, as general expenses rose faster than revenue. The company said these expenses increased alongside growth investments, while productivity and efficiency efforts helped limit the increase. WALMEX shares closed at 49.100 pesos on October 27, down 2.37% for the day, according to Investing.com data.
The company’s results showed the gross profit margin holding steady at 24.7%, unchanged from the third quarter of 2025. Walmex said commercial solutions helped partly offset investments aimed at improving its price gap. General expenses, meanwhile, rose 5.7% year on year, reaching 17.4% of sales during the quarter. The company attributed the increase mainly to growth investments, noting that productivity and efficiency efforts offset part of it. This trajectory puts 3% revenue growth alongside faster-rising expenses, while net profit fell compared with the year-earlier period.
Sales performance varied between the two regions where the company operates: comparable sales grew 1.7% in Mexico, versus 4.8% in Central America in the third quarter. In Mexico, the average ticket rose 1.6%, while the company described customer traffic as relatively stable. By revenue, Mexico recorded growth of 3.1%, while Central America grew 6% in constant currency. These figures show both markets contributing to revenue growth, with a faster pace of comparable sales in Central America. They also place relatively stable customer traffic in Mexico alongside sales growth there that relied on a higher average ticket.
Chief Executive Christian Barrientos said the company is focused on strengthening its core business, accelerating its digital operations and improving efficiency. “We are focused on executing with urgency,” he added in the results report. These priorities come alongside increased spending on growth, which the company said was the main driver of higher general expenses. At the same time, it said productivity and efficiency partly limited the impact of the increase, and commercial solutions helped offset investments to improve its price gap. The company’s account of these factors reflects a focus on balancing operating investment with protecting margins, which held at 24.7% during the quarter.
Walmex is scheduled to hold a live third-quarter results question-and-answer session on October 28 at 6:30 a.m. Mexico City time. The session will give management a chance to discuss quarterly performance and operating priorities after the company reported lower net profit despite revenue growth. This comes ahead of Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography publishing its preliminary estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product on October 30. The institute said the flash estimate is issued about 30 days after the end of the reference quarter and provides an early reading of economic activity before the full quarterly figures replace it. The upcoming reading offers an additional measure of the economic backdrop in which the company operated during the quarter, although Walmex did not link its results to it in its report.