Albertsons shares rise after earnings beat, guidance raised

Albertsons Cos. Inc.
ACI,
+0.84%
shares rose 4.2% in Tuesday premarket trading after the grocery retailer reported fiscal third quarter earnings beat expectations and the company raised its full-year expectations. Net income totaled $123.7 million, or 20 cents per share, up from $54.8 million, or 9 cents per share, last year. Adjusted EPS of 66 cents far exceeded the FactSet consensus for 35 cents. Sales of $15.41 billion was up from $14.10 billion last year and also ahead of the FactSet consensus for $15.04 billion. Identical sales growth of 12.3% beat the FactSet consensus for 10.5% growth. Albertsons now expects fiscal full-year 2020 identical sales growth of 16.5%, up from 15.5% previously, and adjusted EPS in the range of $3.05 to $3.15, up from $2.75 to $2.85 previously. The FactSet consensus is for identical sales growth of 15.5% and EPS of $2.84. Albertsons stock began trading in June 2020. Over the last three months, the stock has gained 15.7% outpacing the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.66%,
which is up 7.5% for the period.