Kroger disappointed on earnings for the latest quarter reported, and put forward a guidance weaker than anticipated.
The supermarket chain raked in adjusted earnings of 48 cents per share for the three months ending in January, falling short of analysts’ expectations of 44 cents per share. The earnings-per-share was also lower than the year-ago quarter’s figure, by more than -11%.
Group sales of the company declined -11% year-over-year to $28.1 billion in the quarter, missing the Street consensus expectation of $23.38 billion.
Looking ahead, Kroger expects full year 2019 earnings to be in the range of $2.15 to $2.25 per share, which is below analysts' estimate of $2.26 per share (based on Refinitiv data).
However, CEO Rodney McMullen sounded optimistic, as he emphasized, "Kroger solidly delivered on what we set out to do in 2018, which was an investment year that laid the groundwork for us to achieve our 2020 Restock Kroger targets including financials.” He is hopeful that the company would achieve $400 million in incremental FIFO operating profit growth and $6.5 billion in cumulative Restock cash flow by the end of 2020.