Earnings Roundup: WMT, SHLD, CRM, BRCD, AMAT, ARO, GPS

It was a big day for retail earnings today as many of the country’s big chain store operations reported their first quarter results. Here’s a round up of how they, and others, did in the period. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) had a good quarter by its own and other’s estimations. The company earned $3.74 billion in the first quarter of 2012 as the consumer economy began to rebound. In the same period last year the big box store reported profits of $3.4 billion. The firm’s revenue for the three months were $113 billion. The company beat Wall Street’s expectations and…