Shares of Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) sank more than 6% in Wednesday morning trading after the company posted disappointing fourth-quarter sales.
The office supply retailer said that it earned $78.1 million during the quarter, down from $283.6 million last year. Adjusted EPS came in at 46 cents a share. That beat Wall Street forecasts by a penny, Reuters noted.
Quarterly sales climbed to $6.56 billion, up 3% from the same period last year. But that fell short of analysts’ prediction of $6.72 billion in sales.
Same-store sales in Europe fell 9% during the quarter, while North American stores reported a 5% sales decline.
Staples recently began to carry accessories for Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) popular mobile devices.
Last month, office supply rivals OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX) and Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) announced that they would merge operations. Both companies saw their shares slide about 2% in Wednesday morning trading.
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