Walmart dives after lawsuit alleges company issued 'misleading e-commerce results'

Markets Insider

• A whistleblower is suing Walmart, saying the company " issued misleading e-commerce results."
• Shares of the company sank as much as 2.4% Thursday.

Shares of Walmart sank as much as 2.45% from their intraday highs on Thursday following a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the company " issued misleading e-commerce results."

In a suit filed in San Francisco on Thursday, the company's former director of business development, Tri Huynh, said he was wrongly fired for raising concern about Walmart's "overly aggressive push to show meteoric growth in its e-commerce business by any means possible -- even, illegitimate ones," according to a Bloomberg News report.

Walmart has been aggressively investing in its e-commerce business following its $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com in August 2016, including further buyouts of niche online stores like Bonobos and Modcloth.

On its most recent earnings report in February, Walmart said its online sales growth had slowed more than Wall Street expected, sending the stock tumbling. Shares of Walmart are down 11.7% since the beginning of 2018.

This story is developing...