Walmart 2016 Annual Report Download - page 35

33Only Walmart
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report to Shareholders contains statements that we believe
are “forward-looking statements” entitled to the protection of the safe
harbor for forward-looking statements provided by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended.
The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report to Shareholders
are not statements of historical facts, but instead express our estimates or
expectations for our consolidated, or one of our segment’s, economic
performance or results of operations for future periods or as of future
dates or events or developments that may occur in the future or discuss
our plans, objectives or goals. These forward-looking statements relate to:
• the growth of our business or change in our competitive position in the
future or in or over particular periods;
• the amount, number, growth or increase, in or over certain periods, of or
in certain financial items or measures or operating measures, including
net sales, comparable store and club sales, liabilities, expenses of certain
categories, returns, capital and operating investments or expenditures of
particular types, new store openings, or investments in particular formats;
• investments we will make and how certain of those investments are
expected to be financed;
• volatility in currency exchange rates and fuel prices affecting our or one
of our segments’ results of operations;
• the Company continuing to provide returns to shareholders through share
repurchases and dividends, the use of share repurchase authorization
over a certain period or the source of funding of a certain portion of our
share repurchases;
• our sources of liquidity, including our cash, continuing to be adequate
or sufficient to fund and finance our operations, expansion activities,
dividends and share repurchases, to meet our cash needs and to fund
our domestic operations without repatriating earnings we hold outside
of the U.S.;
• our intention to reinvest the earnings we hold outside of the U.S. in our
foreign operations and certain laws, other limitations and potential
taxes on anticipated future repatriations of such earnings not materially
affecting our liquidity, financial condition or results of operations;
• the insignificance of ineffective hedges and reclassification of amounts
related to our derivatives;
• the realization of certain net deferred tax assets and the effects of reso-
lutions of tax-related matters;
• the effect of adverse decisions in, or settlement of, litigation to which we
are subject and the effect of an FCPA-investigation on our business; or
• the effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition
of the Company’s adoption of certain new, or amendments to existing,
accounting standards.
Statement of our plans, objectives and goals in this Annual Report to
Shareholders, including our priority of the growth of the Company being
balanced by the long-term health of the Company, including returns, are
also forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements described above are identified by the
use in such statements of words or phrases such as “aim,” “anticipate,”
“could be,” “could increase,” “estimated,” “expansion,” “expect,” “expected
to be,” “focus,” “goal,” “grow,” “intend,” “invest,” “is expected,” “may continue,”
“may fluctuate,” “may grow,” “may impact,” “may result,” “objective,” “plan,”
“priority,” “project,” “strategy,” “to be,” “to win,” “we’ll,” “we will,” “will add,”
“will allow,” “will be,” “will benefit,” “will continue,” “will decrease,” “will
have,” “will impact,” “will include,” “will increase,” “will open,” “will result,”
“will strengthen,” “will win,” “would be,” “would decrease” and “would
increase,” variations of such words and phrases and other words or
phrases of similar import.
Risks, Factors and Uncertainties Affecting Our Business
Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and
uncertainties, domestically and internationally, outside of our control. One,
or a combination, of these risks, factors and uncertainties could materially
affect any of those matters as to which we have made forward-looking
statements in this Annual Report to Shareholders and cause our actual
results or an actual event or occurrence to differ materially from those
results or an event or occurrence described in any such forward- looking
statement. These factors include, but are not limited to:
• economic, geo-political, financial markets and business conditions,
trends, changes, and events, economic crises, including sovereign
debt crises, and disruptions in the financial markets;
• monetary policies of the various governments, governmental entities,
and central banks;
• currency exchange rate fluctuations and volatility and changes in market
rates of interest;
• inflation and deflation, generally and in certain product categories,
including gasoline and diesel fuel;
• consumer confidence, disposable income, credit availability, spending
levels, shopping patterns, debt levels, demand for certain merchandise
and receipt of income tax refunds and public assistance payments;
• consumer acceptance of our stores and clubs, e-commerce websites,
mobile commerce applications, initiatives, programs and merchandise
offerings and customer traffic and average ticket in our stores and clubs
and on our retail websites and mobile commerce applications;
• commodity and energy prices and selling prices of commodity items,
such as gasoline and diesel fuel;
• our historical results of operations, cash flows, financial condition
and liquidity;
• the amounts of sales and earnings from our United States and foreign
operations and our cost of goods sold;
• competitive initiatives, and changes in the operations, of other retailers,
and warehouse club operators and e-commerce retailers, arrival of new
competitors and other competitive pressures;
• the seasonality of business, seasonal buying patterns and the disruption
of such patterns;
• unanticipated store or club closures, unanticipated restructurings and
the related expenses;
• the size of and turnover in our hourly workforce and our labor costs,
including health-care and other benefit costs;