Walmart Costs and Expenses by Year: FY 1970 – 2020

The below graph represents Walmart costs and expenses by year, starting from fiscal 1970 to the recently completed year. The company's total operating expenses (including costs of sales, and selling, general and administrative expenses) reached an all-time high in FY 2020.

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The above graph represents Walmart costs and expenses by year, starting from fiscal 1970 to the recently completed year. Walmart’s total operating expenses (including cost of sales and selling, general and administrative expenses) surpassed $503,396 million ($503.4 billion) in FY 2020. This was primarily driven by the 2.4% YoY increase in cost of sales. Walmart Cost of Sales in FY 2020 reached an all-time high of $394,605 million ($394.6 billion). On the other hand, Walmart spend on Selling, General and administrative also increased 1.53% YoY to a record $108,791 million ($108.8 billion) during the same period.

RegionWorldwide
SourceWalmart Annual ReportsSEC Filings
Graph ID668
NoteWalmart financial year: From Feb 1st to January 31st

In FY 1999, Walmart’s annual cost of sales surpassed $100 billion ($108,725 million to be specific) mark for the first time, representing 16.4% YoY growth.

On the other hand, Walmart selling, general and administrative expenses surpassed $100 billion ($101,853 million to be specific) in FY 2017 – representing 21% of the company’s total revenue.

About Walmart Inc.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) (formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded in 1962, by Sam M. Walton and opened the first Walmart Discount City store in Rogers, Arkansas. Within just five years, it expanded to 24 stores in the city.

On October 31, 1969, the company was officially incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and within a year, on October 1, 1970, it became a publicly-traded company. The first stock was sold at $16.50 per share.

In 1983, Walmart opened its first Sam’s Club, while in 1988, the company opened its first Supercenter and first Walmart Neighborhood Market.

It was the year 1997 when Walmart celebrated its first $100 billion annual sales.

In 2000, Walmart launched its first e-commerce website – walmart.comSince then, the company’s e-commerce presence has been growing phenomenally. In August 2018, Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion – the largest acquisition Walmart made in the last 10 years.

Walmart remains the No. 1 company on 2019 Fortune 500 list for the seven years in a row.

On February 1, 2018, the legal name of the company became Walmart Inc., changing from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

As of the end of fiscal 2019, Walmart Inc. and its subsidiaries combined employed more than 2.2 million employees (“associates”), globally. Out of that, about 1.5 million associates are from the U.S. and rest nearly 0.7 million associates internationally.

Here are some more interesting facts about Walmart.


The above graph is a part of Dazeinfo GraphFarm – the most trusted source of hundreds of thousands of market graphs. Our team of researchers mines millions of data points every month to bring the most updated and validated set of data points representing the comprehensive view in a graphical format. From mobile to e-commerce, from Retail to healthcare, from startups to SMEs we have carefully designed thousands of graphs for those who value and understand the importance of data visualisation.

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