Mexico's Walmex reports 4% drop in Q4 profit, missing forecasts

MEXICO CITY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico and Central America unit Walmex WALMEX.MXon Wednesday reported a 3.9% drop in its fourth-quarter net profit compared to the same period in 2024, missing analysts' forecasts.

Net profit for Mexico's largest retailer hit 14.60 billion pesos for the last three months of 2025, landing below 16.68 billion pesos predicted by analysts polled by LSEG.

Revenues for the quarter were nevertheless up 3% ,coming in at 282.85 billion pesos, also short of analysts' 287.37 billion pesos estimate.

Although reported results fell across Walmex's Central American operations during the quarter, they grew when stripping out the effects of foreign exchange.

Mexico's peso strengthened 13.8% versus the U.S. dollar in the 12 months through the end of December, and just over 1.5% in the final quarter, cutting into the value of earnings made abroad.

CEO Cristian Barrientos said the company would remain focused on low prices, product availability and accelerating its e-commerce operations.

"We know what we have to do, we have clear priorities and we will accelerate the speed at which we are moving," he said in an earnings report.

Walmex opened 102 new stores in Mexico - mostly discount Bodega Aurrera supermarkets - and 13 in Central America, bringing its total footprint to 4,265 stores.

($1 = 18.0080 Mexican pesos at end-December)