Kroger reported better-than-expected results for its latest quarter.
Photo: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK/Reuters
Kroger Co. KR 7.63% saw its sales and profit grow year over year in its latest quarter, with the supermarket company noting that costs have continued to climb for some categories of food that it sells.
Cincinnati-based Kroger said identical sales, a metric that accounts for store openings and closings, grew 4% in the three months through January, excluding fuel sales. That continued a pandemic-era trend for the company, extending a period when consumers have been eating more meals at home. Identical sales were up 15% compared with two years ago, before the Covid-19 reached the U.S.
Overall, Kroger’s sales were $33.05 billion, up from $30.74 billion a year earlier. Its profit was $566 million, or 75 cents a share, a swing from a loss of 10 cents a share a year earlier.
Stripping out one-time items, Kroger posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 91 cents a share. Wall Street analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 74 cents a share and sales of $32.68 billion, according to FactSet.
Looking ahead, Kroger said that it expects identical sales to grow by 2% to 3% in its 2022 fiscal year, lifting adjusted earnings per share to between $3.75 and $3.85. Those forecasts surpassed the projections of analysts, who were expecting a slightly slower growth rate.
Shares climbed 5.8% in premarket trading on Thursday after closing on Wednesday at $49.37.
Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
