the Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) said Thursday that its third-quarter earnings for the fiscal year were better than expected, but sales fell short of estimates.
Currently trading at £24 per share, Kroger’s shares are up slightly less than 15% year on year on the stock market. His shares fell to £19.96 in the last week of January. Kroger printed an annual high of £27.20 per share in September, but lost momentum in the last three months.
Kroger’s financial results for the 3rd quarter compared to analysts’ estimates
Kroger said his net profit for the quarter ended November 7 was £468.94 million, or 59.45 pence per share. This compares with a much lower net profit of £195.46 million or 23.78 pence per share in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted for non-recurring items, the retail company earned 52.77 pence per share in the third quarter compared to 34.93 pence per share in the same period last year. In terms of revenue, Kroger reported annualised growth of 6.3% to £22.09 billion in the final quarter.
According to FactSet, experts had predicted that the company would record higher revenues of £22.27 billion in the third quarter. Their estimate for third quarter earnings per share was capped at a lower figure of 49.79 pence per share. In the previous quarter (Q2), Kroger had reported revenue growth of 8.24% despite the ongoing COVID 19 crisis, which has so far infected more than 14 million people in the U.S. and caused over a quarter million deaths.
Kroger also emphasized on Thursday that his sales in the same stores increased 10.9% year-over-year, while a lower growth of 9.3% is expected.
Kroger’s forecast for the full financial year
Kroger valued its share buyback at £225.93 million in the third quarter of the fiscal year. For the full fiscal year, the Cincinnati-based company now forecasts a decline in adjusted earnings per share in the range of £2.45 to £2.49. It expects its annual turnover in comparable businesses to grow by 14%.
In comparison, the FactSet consensus for Kroger’s adjusted earnings per share is £2.45 and for annual sales growth in the same business is 12.5%. Kroger expanded its partnership with UK online supermarket Ocado last week to include in-store fulfillment capabilities.
Kroger ended last year with the stock market almost unchanged on average. At the time of writing this article, the company is valued at £18.58 billion and has a price-earnings ratio of 9.87.
