Walmart is beating expectations on profit and revenue, and e-commerce sales surged during the fourth quarter.

Shares moved sharply higher before the opening bell Tuesday.

The company had a fourth-quarter profit of $3.69 billion, or $1.27 per share. Earnings, removing one-time items, were $1.41 per share, which is 8 cents better than analysts had expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

The Bentonville, Arkansas, company had revenue of $138.79 billion, also better than expected.

Sales at established U.S. Walmart Inc. stores jumped 4.2 percent, easily beating projections.

Walmart's performance is encouraging after a dismal government report on December sales from U.S. retailers.

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Portions of this story were generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WMT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WMT