2024-04-22 08:44:41 ET
Albertsons Companies Inc (NYSE: ACI) is trading down in premarket on Monday even though it reported better-than-expected financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter.
Why is Albertsons stock down today?
The price action is interesting also because the retail chain saw its digital sales went up 24% on a year-over-year basis in Q4.
Albertsons ended the quarter with 39.8 million loyalty members – up 16% versus the same quarter last year. Vivek Sankaran – its chief executive said in a press release today:
As we look forward to fiscal 2024, we will continue investing in our Customers for Life strategy and developing the digital and omnichannel capabilities necessary to support it.
Identical sales, as per $ACI, went up 1.0% in its fourth financial quarter. Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on Albertsons stock that does not pay a dividend at writing.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/78U3w4LZQzM?feature=oembedAlbertsons Q4 earnings snapshot
- Earned $251 million versus the year-ago $311 million
- Per-share earnings also declined from 54 cents to 43 cents
- Adjusted EPS printed at 54 cents as per the earnings report
- Revenue remained roughly unchanged year-on-year at $18.34 billion
- Consensus was 52 cents a share on $15.48 billion in revenue
Albertsons improved its gross margin by 20 basis points in the recently concluded quarter. CEO Sankaran also said on Monday:
We expect to face ongoing headwinds posed by investments in associate wages and benefits, cycling food inflation, lower government assistance for our customers, declining COVID-related income, and increasing mix of our pharmacy and digital businesses.
$ACI is now down well over 10% versus its year-to-date high.
The post Albertsons 'expects to face ongoing headwinds' after Q4 earnings appeared first on Invezz
