The Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) stock received a small boost on Thursday morning after reporting a small earnings beat for its first quarter.
For Q1, Kroger brought in 70 cents per share of KR stock in profits — 13% better year-over-year, and a penny better than Wall Street’s expectations. KR has now beaten or met quarterly earnings estimates for the past four years.
However, that came on revenue growth of 4.7% to $34.6 billion, which actually came in shy of estimates for $34.9 billion.
Identical supermarket sales ex-fuel improved by 2.4%, which marked the 50th straight quarter of growth in the metric.
“We are very pleased with a solid quarter during which we continued to strengthen our connection with customers and expand our ClickList offering to more customers in more markets,” said CEO Rodney McMullen in the earnings release. “Fifty consecutive quarters of positive identical supermarket sales growth, excluding fuel, is extraordinary.”
Weighing on results a bit were FIFO gross margins, which at 23% of sales — excluding fuel and the Roundy’s brand, which Kroger acquired last year — were off 2 basis points. However, operating expenses slipped 4 basis points.
Looking forward, nothing changed on the outlook front. Kroger still is looking to earnings of $2.19 to $2.28 per share in profits, as well as comps of 2.5% to 3.5%. Meanwhile, KR says capital investments excluding M&A and purchases of leased facilities will come to $4.1 billion to $4.1 billion.
Today’s bump is coming off the stock’s 50-day moving average, with about 2% to 3% more headroom before it meets resistance at KR’s 200-day MA.
Kroger stock is still trying to claw its way out of a 12% year-to-date hole.
