Kroger Tops Q2 Profit Forecast, Narrowly Misses Revenue

by Christopher Freeburn | September 7, 2012 9:53 am

Kroger (NYSE:KR[1]) announced on Friday that it earned $279.1 million during its fiscal second quarter[2], down slightly from $280.8 million in the same period last year.

The supermarket chain operator posted quarterly revenue of $21.73 billion, up 3.9% from 2011. But that fell just shy of the $21.9 billion that Wall Street had expected, Reuters noted.

EPS for the second-quarter came in at 51 cents, topping analysts who forecast 49 cents a share.

Investors were not impressed. Shares of Kroger fell more than 2% in Friday morning trading.

The company revised upward previous earnings guidance of between $2.33 and $2.40 a share for the full year. It now forecasts earnings of between $2.35 and $2.40 a share. That is in line with Wall Street, which anticipates a full year profit about about $2.37 a share.

Same-store sales increased 3.6% over last year, beating estimates of a 3% increase. Analysts noted that Kroger has been drawing customers away from rival grocery chains like Supervalu (NYSE:SVU[3]) and Safeway (NYSE:SWY[4]).

Last month, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT[5]), which has become the country’s largest retailer of grocery products, reported second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates, but fell short on revenue[6].

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