“We expect the relationship between profit and sales growth to favor profitability in Q4 and for the full year to align with our goal of operating income growing faster than sales.”

In context

“tegy continue to resonate with customers. We're gaining share, seeing strong e-commerce growth, and excited about the contributions from higher margin businesses like advertising. Sales grew more than 4%, gross profit was better than expected and we exceeded our guidance for EPS. These results reinforce the benefits of our highly diversified business with broad-based contributions across segments and markets, channels and formats, and strategic growth areas. While we're pleased with our topline results, operating income was below our guidance due to higher than anticipated expenses largely certain legal accruals. I'll provide more details on guidance shortly. But the key takeaway is that we're raising our full year sales and EPS guide while reiterating our prior operating income guidance. We expect the relationship between profit and sales growth to favor profitability in Q4 and for the full year to align with our goal of operating income growing faster than sales. Now let me review the key financial highlights for Q3, using our financial framework of growth, margins and returns. First, growth. Constant currency sales increased 4.4% or nearly $7 billion. Importantly, we saw traffic growth across both in-store and digital channels. All three operating segments experienced mid-single digit sales growth, with comp sales for Walmart U.S. up 4.9%, in Sam's Club U.S. up 3.8% excluding fuel. International grew sales 5.4% in constant currency with Walmex sales up more than 9%, and China up 25% with strong performance in Sam's Club and e-commerce. The timing of Flipkart's Big Billion Days pressured international sales growth as the event moved from Q3 last year to Q4 this year. So we expect the timing to be a benefit to Q4's growth rate for the segment. Phon”