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When a company's profits are growing, free cash flow is declining, and management is boasting that free cash flow will grow by double digits in the second half of the year. Why? If we only talk about the main business, $WMT's released financial report is impressive in terms of both revenue and profit: total revenue for the second quarter reached $187.9 billion, up 5.9% year-on-year; Adjusted operating profit increased 17.4% year-on-year, with adjusted earnings per share reaching $0.81, up 19.1% year-on-year; The company also raised its full-year sales, operating profit, and earnings per share guidance. However, I think the cash flow changes in this financial report are worth discussing. If you look closely, you'll find it's hard to achieve. Two data points need to be reported here: Walmart's free cash flow in the first half of the year fell from $6.943 billion in the same period last year to $5.529 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 20.4%; However, management still expects free cash flow to achieve double-digit growth this fiscal year. What does this mean? Many people may not have the idea: last fiscal year, Walmart's $WMT had $14.923 billion in free cash flow for the full year. Even at the minimum threshold of 10% for "double-digit growth," this fiscal year still needs to reach at least $16.415 billion. After subtracting the $5.529 billion already generated in the first half, at least $10.886 billion will be needed in the second half, while Walmart's free cash flow in the second half of last year was about $7.98 billion. Look at the chart I made; when you put out the purple part on top, the comparison is very obvious