"We left a lot on the table," Scott said on a recorded call. "We intend to, and in fact are addressing these issues,"
Earnings for the fourth quarter ended January 31 rose to $3.16 billion, or 75 cents per share, from $2.72 billion, or 63 cents per share, a year earlier.
Wal-Mart had said in November that it expected profit of 73 cents to 75 cents a share. Analysts on average forecast 74 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company has driven down its cost of sales through efforts to buy more merchandise in less expensive overseas locations, said Bill Dreher, analyst at Deutsche Bank.
"It's a very strong quarter, driven by improvement in the cost of sales, which is likely benefiting from global sourcing initiatives, which allows them to lower the source of their internationally acquired product."
But interest expenses, which are likely to rise by about 25 percent in 2005, and other factors are pressuring the retailer, Dreher said.
"They continue to wrestle with higher costs, including store labour, utility and health-care costs, but it sounds like they are going to be aggressively attacking those costs," said Dreher, who has a rating of "buy" on the company's shares.
The company said it expects further growth this year.
Shares of Wal-Mart rose to $52.95 in premarket trade on the INET electronic system, up from a close of $52.60 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Sales during the quarter rose 10.4 percent to $82.22 billion from $74.49 billion. Sales at US stores open for at least a year, a key measure of retail strength, rose 1.4 percent.
Sales missed analysts' forecasts, which called for revenue of $82.63 billion. The company said earlier that sales in January were hurt by a shift in pre-Super Bowl sales to February and unseasonable weather in parts of the United States.