Walmart Inc.

Liquidity

The strength and stability of our operations have historically supplied us with a significant source of liquidity. Our cash flows provided by operating activities, supplemented with our long-term debt and short-term borrowings, have been sufficient to fund our operations while allowing us to invest in activities that support the long-term growth of our operations. Generally, some or all of the remaining available cash flow has been used to fund dividends on our common stock and share repurchases. We believe our sources of liquidity will continue to be sufficient to fund operations, finance our investment activities, pay dividends and fund our share repurchases for at least the next 12 months and for the foreseeable future.

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $36.4 billion, $35.7 billion and $28.8 billion for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase in net cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2025, when compared to the previous fiscal year, is primarily due to an increase in cash provided by operating income and lapping the payment of accrued opioid legal charges in the prior year, partially offset by increased inventory purchases. The increase in net cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2024, when compared to the previous fiscal year, was primarily due to higher cash provided by operating income, as well as timing of certain payments and strategic inventory management as part of working capital initiatives, partially offset by payment of the remaining accrued opioid legal charges.

Cash Equivalents and Working Capital Deficit

Cash and cash equivalents were $9.0 billion and $9.9 billion as of January 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Our working capital deficit, defined as total current assets less total current liabilities, was $17.1 billion and $15.5 billion as of January 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The increase in our working capital deficit is primarily driven by an increase in short-term borrowings for general corporate purposes and accounts payable due to timing of payments, partially offset by increased inventories and receivables related to higher sales growth. We generally operate with a working capital deficit due to our efficient use of cash in funding operations, consistent access to the capital markets and returns provided to our shareholders in the form of payments of cash dividends and share repurchases.

We use intercompany financing arrangements in an effort to ensure cash can be made available in the country in which it is needed with the minimum cost possible. Additionally, from time-to-time, we repatriate earnings and related cash from jurisdictions outside of the U.S. Under current law, repatriations of foreign earnings will generally be free of U.S. federal tax, but may incur other taxes such as withholding or state taxes. We do not expect current local laws, or other existing limitations on anticipated future repatriations of cash amounts held outside the U.S. to have a material effect on our overall liquidity, financial position or results of operations.

As of January 31, 2025 and 2024, cash and cash equivalents of $3.3 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, may not be freely transferable to the U.S. due to local laws or other restrictions or are subject to the approval of the noncontrolling interest shareholders.

Net Cash Used in Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $21.4 billion, $21.3 billion and $17.7 billion for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and generally consisted of capital expenditures. Net cash used in investing activities increased $0.1 billion for fiscal 2025 when compared to the previous fiscal year. The increase is primarily due to increased purchases of property and equipment as well as the acquisition of VIZIO for net consideration of $1.9 billion, partially offset by net proceeds received from sales of certain strategic investments, including $3.6 billion related to the sale of our JD.com investment. Net cash used in investing activities increased $3.6 billion for fiscal 2024 when compared to the previous fiscal year, primarily due to increased payments for property and equipment.

Capital expenditures

Refer to the "Strategic Capital Allocation" section in our Company Performance Metrics for capital expenditure detail for fiscal 2025 and 2024. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026 ("fiscal 2026"), we project capital expenditures will be approximately $21 billion to $25 billion, with a focus on technology, supply chain and customer-facing initiatives.

Net Cash Used in Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities generally consisted of debt transactions, dividends paid, repurchases of Company stock and transactions with noncontrolling interest shareholders. Fiscal 2025 net cash used in financing activities increased $1.4 billion when compared to the previous fiscal year. The increase is primarily due to lapping debt issuances in the prior fiscal year and increased share repurchases, partially offset by the purchase of certain noncontrolling interests in the prior fiscal year and higher short-term borrowings. Fiscal 2024 net cash used in financing activities decreased $3.6 billion when compared to the previous fiscal year. The decrease was primarily due to fewer share repurchases, partially offset by the purchase of certain noncontrolling interests.

Purchase and Sale of Subsidiary Stock

During fiscal 2024, we paid $3.5 billion to acquire shares from certain Flipkart noncontrolling interest holders and settle the liability to former noncontrolling interest holders of PhonePe. Additionally, we received $0.7 billion related to new rounds of equity funding for the Company's majority owned PhonePe subsidiary.

During fiscal 2023, we completed a $0.4 billion buyout of the noncontrolling interest shareholders of our Massmart subsidiary and completed a $0.4 billion acquisition of Alert Innovation, bringing our ownership to approximately 100% of both Massmart and Alert Innovation. The Alert Innovation entity was subsequently sold and deconsolidated in fiscal 2025.

Short-term Borrowings

We generally utilize the liquidity provided by short-term borrowings to provide funding for our operations, dividend payments, share repurchases, capital expenditures and other cash requirements. The following table includes additional information related to our short-term borrowings for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023:

Short-term borrowings as of January 31, 2025 and 2024 were $3.1 billion and $0.9 billion, respectively, with weighted-average interest rates of 5.3% and 7.7%, respectively. We also have $15.0 billion of various undrawn committed lines of credit in the U.S. as of January 31, 2025 that provide additional liquidity, if needed. Additionally, we maintain access to various credit facilities outside of the U.S. to further support our Walmart International segment operations, as needed.

As of January 31, 2025, we have $2.1 billion of syndicated and fronted letters of credit available, of which $1.5 billion was drawn and represents an unrecorded current obligation.

Long-term Debt

The following table provides the changes in our long-term debt for fiscal 2025:

Our total outstanding long-term debt decreased $3.6 billion during fiscal 2025, primarily due to maturities of certain long-term debt. Refer to Note 6 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for details on the issuances of long-term debt.

Estimated contractual interest payments associated with our long-term debt amount to $18.2 billion, with approximately $1.7 billion expected to be paid in fiscal 2026. Estimated interest payments are based on our principal amounts and expected maturities of all debt outstanding as of January 31, 2025, and assumes interest rates remain at current levels for our variable rate instruments.

Dividends

Our total dividend payments were $6.7 billion, $6.1 billion and $6.1 billion for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Effective February 20, 2025, the Company approved the fiscal 2026 annual dividend of $0.94 per share, an increase over the fiscal 2025 annual dividend of $0.83 per share. For fiscal 2026, the annual dividend will be paid in four quarterly installments of $0.235 per share, according to the following record and payable dates:

Company Share Repurchase Program

From time to time, the Company repurchases shares of its common stock under share repurchase programs authorized by the Company's Board of Directors. All repurchases made during fiscal 2025 were made under the current $20.0 billion share repurchase program approved in November 2022, which has no expiration date or other restrictions limiting the period over which the Company can make repurchases. As of January 31, 2025, authorization for $12.0 billion of share repurchases remained under the share repurchase program. Any repurchased shares are constructively retired and returned to an unissued status.

We regularly review share repurchase activity and consider several factors in determining when to execute share repurchases, including, among other things, current cash needs, capacity for leverage, cost of borrowings, our results of operations and the market price of our common stock. We anticipate that a majority of the ongoing share repurchase program will be funded through the Company's free cash flow.

The following table provides, on a settlement date basis, the number of shares repurchased, average price paid per share and total amount paid for share repurchases for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023:

Material Cash Requirements

Material cash requirements from operating activities primarily consist of inventory purchases, employee related costs, taxes, interest and other general operating expenses, which we expect to be primarily satisfied by our cash from operations. Other material cash requirements from known contractual and other obligations include short-term borrowings, long-term debt and related interest payments, leases and purchase obligations. See Note 6 and Note 7 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding outstanding short-term borrowings and long-term debt, and leases, respectively.

As of January 31, 2025, the Company has $37.2 billion of unrecorded purchase obligations outstanding, of which $15.9 billion is due within one year. Purchase obligations include legally binding contracts, such as firm commitments for inventory and utility purchases, as well as commitments to make capital expenditures, software acquisition and license commitments and legally binding service contracts. Contractual obligations for the purchase of goods or services are defined as agreements that are enforceable and legally binding and that specify all significant terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable price provisions; and the approximate timing of the transaction. Contracts that specify the Company will purchase all or a portion of its requirements of a specific product or service from a supplier, but do not include a fixed or minimum quantity, are excluded from the obligations quantified above. Accordingly, purchase orders for inventory are also excluded as purchase orders represent authorizations to purchase rather than binding agreements. Our purchase orders are based on our current inventory needs and are fulfilled by our suppliers within short time periods. We also enter into contracts for outsourced services; however, the obligations under these contracts are not significant and the contracts generally contain clauses allowing for cancellation without significant penalty. Timing of payments and actual amounts paid may be different depending on the timing of receipt of goods or services or changes to agreed-upon amounts for some obligations.

Capital Resources

We believe our cash flows from operations, current cash position, short-term borrowings and access to capital markets will continue to be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements and contractual obligations, which includes funding seasonal buildups in merchandise inventories and funding our capital expenditures, acquisitions, dividend payments and share repurchases.

We have strong commercial paper and long-term debt ratings that have enabled and should continue to enable us to refinance our debt as it becomes due at favorable rates in capital markets. As of January 31, 2025, the ratings assigned to our commercial paper and rated series of our outstanding long-term debt were as follows:

Credit rating agencies review their ratings periodically, and therefore, the credit ratings assigned to us by each agency may be subject to revision at any time. Accordingly, we are not able to predict whether our current credit ratings will remain consistent over time. Factors that could affect our credit ratings include changes in our operating performance, the general economic environment, conditions in the retail industry, our financial position, including our total debt and capitalization, and changes in our business strategy. Any downgrade of our credit ratings by a credit rating agency could increase our future borrowing costs or impair our ability to access capital and credit markets on terms commercially acceptable to us. In addition, any downgrade of our current short-term credit ratings could impair our ability to access the commercial paper markets with the same flexibility that we have experienced historically, potentially requiring us to rely more heavily on more expensive types of debt financing. The credit rating agency ratings are not recommendations to buy, sell or hold our commercial paper or debt securities. Each rating may be subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating organization and should be evaluated independently of any other rating. Moreover, each credit rating is specific to the security to which it applies.

Other Matters

In Note 10 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, which is captioned "Contingencies" and appears in Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data," we discuss, under the sub-captions "Settlement of Certain Opioid-Related Matters,"and"Ongoing Opioid-Related Litigation," certain opioid-related matters, as well as the Prescription Opiate Litigation, and other matters, including certain risks arising therefrom. In that Note 10, we discuss "Asda Equal Value Claims" the Company's indemnification obligation for the Asda Equal Value Claims matter, "Money Transfer Agent Services Matters," a United States Federal Trade Commission complaint related to money transfers and the Company's anti-fraud program and a government investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania into the Company's consumer fraud prevention and anti-money laundering compliance related to the Company's money transfer agent services, as well as matters related to independent contractor drivers on our Spark platform under "Driver Platform Matters." In Note 10, under "Mexico Antitrust Matter," we also discuss a quasi-judicial administrative process initiated by COFECE against Walmex and Walmex's related constitutional challenge. In Note 10, we also discuss a show cause notice and requests issued by the Directorate of Enforcement to Flipkart regarding Foreign Direct Investment rules and regulations in India and an India Antitrust Matter. We reference various legal proceedings related to the Prescription Opiate Litigation, the DOJ Opioid Civil Litigation, Opioids-Related Securities Class Actions, Shareholder Derivative Litigation and False Claims Act Litigation; Asda Equal Value Claims; Money Transfer Agent Services Litigation; Driver Platform Litigation; and Mexico Antitrust Matter in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption "Item 3. Legal Proceedings," under the sub-caption "I. Supplemental Information." The foregoing matters and other matters described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K represent contingent liabilities of the Company that may or may not result in the incurrence of a material liability by the Company upon their final resolution.

Summary of Critical Accounting Estimates

Management strives to report our financial results in a clear and understandable manner, although in some cases accounting and disclosure rules are complex and require us to use technical terminology. In preparing the Company's Consolidated Financial Statements, we follow accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. These principles require us to make certain estimates and apply judgments that affect our financial position and results of operations as reflected in our financial statements. These judgments and estimates are based on past events and expectations of future outcomes. Actual results may differ from our estimates.

Management continually reviews our accounting policies including how they are applied and how they are reported and disclosed in our financial statements. Following is a summary of our critical accounting estimates and how they are applied in preparation of the financial statements.

Contingencies

We are involved in a number of legal proceedings and certain regulatory matters. We record a liability when it is probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount is reasonably estimable. We also perform an assessment of the materiality of loss contingencies where a loss is either reasonably possible or it is reasonably possible that a loss could be incurred in excess of amounts accrued. If a loss or an additional loss has at least a reasonable possibility of occurring and the impact on the financial statements would be material, we provide disclosure of the loss contingency in the footnotes to our financial statements. We review all contingencies at least quarterly to determine whether the likelihood of loss has changed and to assess whether a reasonable estimate of the loss or the range of the loss can be made. Although we are not able to predict the outcome or reasonably estimate a range of possible losses in certain matters described in Note 10 to our Consolidated Financial Statements and have not recorded an associated accrual related to these matters, an adverse judgment or negotiated resolution in any of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Uncertain Tax Positions

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Our tax returns are routinely audited and settlements of issues raised in these audits sometimes affect our tax provisions. The benefits of uncertain tax positions are recorded in our financial statements only after determining a more likely than not probability that the uncertain tax positions will withstand challenge, if any, from taxing authorities. When facts and circumstances change, we reassess these probabilities and record any changes in the financial statements as appropriate. We account for uncertain tax positions by determining the minimum recognition threshold that a tax position is required to meet before being recognized in the financial statements. Accordingly, the determination of our uncertain tax positions requires judgment, the use of estimates in certain cases and the interpretation and application of complex tax laws.