A：The senior vice president of Investor Relations mentioned in the speech is Steph Wissing.

A：The highlights of the fourth quarter and full year include strong growth across markets, the success of the omnichannel model, market share gains, profit growth in all three segments, effective inventory management, and resilience in sales across each segment of the business.

A：The risks and uncertainties mentioned as potential factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include the factors identified in the company's filings with the SEC.

A：The performance of the supply chain automation has been on track.

A：Revenue for the quarter grew at an Ed in constant currency, while adjusted operating income grew even faster at 10.5%.

A：Sales were strong across each segment, including general merchandise, which grew globally and was up low single digits for Walmart US, with fashion being a bright spot both in store and online.

A：Sams Club in the US has been resilient, and customers are choiceful in their spending, emphasizing convenience nearly as much as price.

A：Walmart's purpose is to help people save money and live better. The vision includes serving customers and members better by focusing on their needs and utilizing technology and AI to improve shopping experiences.

A：Walmart's strategy regarding capital spending involves a consistent allocation as a percentage of sales, with a focus on the highest return on investment. They consider every dollar spent to compete for the highest return.

A：The company is using technology and supply chain to deliver ultra-fast delivery times, maximize delivery speed, and provide convenience. Investments in technology and supply chain have helped to deliver items quickly and serve customers better.

A：Walmart is using AI and technology to enhance delivery speed and customer service. They have improved their delivery times and created new shopping experiences like Sparky to engage customers, using AI to turn digital intent into immediate physical outcomes.

A：Walmart's global business approach focuses on technology platforms built for a global scale, enabling faster operations, lower costs, and consistency. They intend to use AI to improve asset leverage and scale innovation while reducing capital intensity.

A：Walmart expects AI to create broader and deeper opportunities, challenging their team to move even faster to meet these opportunities. The company is leveraging AI to enhance their business model and plans to grow the business with an accelerated strategy.

A：Walmart's associates have been executing well and the business model is delivering strong growth and incremental profits despite dynamic operating conditions in the retail industry.

A：Walmart's e-commerce sales have shown strong growth across markets, with specific growth figures provided for different regions and an overall increase in e-commerce economics.

A：The acquisition of Vizio contributed to the company's financial performance by providing a base comparison after lapping their performance, which positively affected the company's base.

A：AI and automation are contributing to inventory efficiency by enabling better visibility into inventory owned and accessible, as well as improved labor productivity. Approximately 60% of Walmart US stores receive freight from automated distribution centers, and 50% of e-commerce fulfillment center volume is automated.

A：Walmart has made changes to its merchandise category mix by leaning into lower prices through rollbacks and everyday low prices (EDLP), particularly in grocery categories, which has helped customers unlock purchasing power for general merchandise. Tariff-related costs have been mitigated to prevent gross margin erosion across many categories. As a result, share gains in general merchandise have been achieved, with mid single-digit sales growth reported in several recent quarters.

A：The strong momentum across Walmart's businesses is being driven by several factors: notably strong performance in digital e-commerce with Merce sales growth of nearly 25% and exceeding $150 billion for the first time, the durability of the business model in complex conditions, underlying profit growth outpacing sales growth, global advertising business up 46%, and membership fees exceeding $4.3 billion.

A：Walmart plans to achieve continued profit growth by aligning globally to leverage common platforms in technology, AI, and digital businesses. This is expected to result in growth at a much lower marginal cost than historically. Specific profit drivers include automation for inventory and labor productivity, a favorable business mix, and continued expense discipline.

A：Walmart provided sales growth guidance of between 3.5 and 4.5 percent for full year constant currency sales and operating income growth guidance of between 6 and 8 percent. They expect earnings per share (EPS) to be in the range of $2.75 to $2.85.

A：Walmart is addressing the impact of external factors such as food price inflation, sales growth headwinds from maximum fair pricing legislation and pharmacy, and the expected continuation of e-commerce as the primary driver of growth by factoring these into their guidance. They plan to mitigate these influences while maintaining a conservative outlook for the year.

A：Capital investments are expected to grow at a much lower marginal cost, with strong cash flow contributing to the reinvestment in the business and returning capital to shareholders. A $30 billion share repurchase program has been authorized for FY 27, which is the largest to date. Walmart expects capital expenditure levels to be approximately 3.5% of sales.

A：For Q1, Walmart projects constant currency sales growth of 3.5% to 4.5%, operating income growth of 4 to 6%, with earnings per share (EPS) in the range of 63 cents to 65 cents.

A：The company has performed with operating income guidance that was met or exceeded by several hundred basis points each of the last three years, with the exception of last year, which was anomalous due to claims.

A：The company is approaching the new fiscal year with a measured and balanced outlook, considering consumer behavior and macroeconomic indicators. There is an overall constructive view of the economy, but the company is cautious due to potential indicators of a hiring recession, subdued consumer sentiment, and student loan delinquencies.

A：The company is maintaining maximum flexibility by continuing its long-term perspective of managing the business for the benefit of customers and shareholders. This includes providing guidance that aligns with the company's historical performance and potential for outperforming, yet being cautious given the economic ties of the company.

A：The company expects like-for-like inflation to be around 1%, with food inflation slightly less and GM inflation slightly more. Pressures include the maximum fair pricing legislation around drugs, which contributes to a projected 100 basis point headwind for the full year. The company anticipates price levels to remain in the current range, with low prices being a core value proposition. They expect to gain share across all income demographics and continue to play an aggressive offensive strategy.

A：The company is implementing several inventory management enhancements including automation at various locations, new technology like computer vision for inventory mapping, and better management of seasonal inventory buys. The company is proud of their team's efforts in managing inventory at half the rate of sales growth. The improvements are expected to continue benefiting the company's operational performance, such as fewer markdowns and fresh throw aways. In the coming year, there is an expectation for improved gross profit and leverage in selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A).

A：The company views marketplace growth as an area of ongoing investment rather than a profitability focus. They aim to lean more into growth opportunities, as evidenced by categories like cooking, fashion, and home decor growing significantly. Walmart Fulfillment Services has a high seller penetration rate and is viewed as a valuable service. The company expects tax stimulus from increased tax refunds to impact their business positively, with some of the effects already reflected in their guidance.

A：To improve personalization in retail, the company is focusing on the use of AI to move from a predictive to a prescriptive model, leveraging the extensive data interaction with customers through platforms like Sparky. This strategy aims to better understand customer needs and preferences, allowing for the delivery of tailored solutions and recommendations.

A：The omnichannel strategy, which includes both physical stores and e-commerce, has helped the company meet and serve new customers, grow with existing ones, and improve results. The flexibility across channels has been crucial in managing customer experiences and has contributed to the company's ability to deliver faster and more intuitive experiences.

A：The 'Spark' platform is significant as it marks the evolution of commerce on the company's website, showing encouraging results with growth from quarter over quarter engagement. Approximately half of the customers engaged with Sparky, leading to better order values and an increase in script growth rate in e-commerce during the fourth quarter.

A：While 'Spark' is currently only live in the U.S., the company has hopes and ambitions to quickly expand the platform into other markets. This expansion is part of the strategy to utilize the detailed understanding of customer needs to provide relevant and unique solutions across various international markets.

A：Walmart plans to use its marketplace business and Vizio ads to improve its advertising capabilities by focusing on these areas for growth rather than first-party brands. The significant growth in advertising with the Vizio business in the quarter is seen as an exciting development that adds another marketing channel. The team is confident in the potential to improve advertising capabilities on a growing base, which is expected to have significant runway for future growth.

A：A structure change made in January is seen as a signal of confidence in the capabilities built in the U.S., which can be exported to other markets. This change includes integrating the marketplace, Vizio advertisements, data services, and Walmart Plus into an enterprise role, which allows for building platforms once globally. This strategy is intended to facilitate the acceleration of growth in other markets using the successful U.S. model.

A：The company expects stores to continue playing a crucial role in customer experience and fulfillment, particularly in the U.S. and international markets like China, where inventory is forward-deployed to support fast in-store pick-up and delivery options. With customers having varied preferences for shopping, whether in-store or online, the company aims to meet these needs. The company is confident in managing the transition and is optimistic about the future, with top-line growth and improved operating income performance. Investments in stores and the omnichannel model are contributing to better performance, and the company remains focused on serving customers across various shopping channels.