Kroger Co., the largest supermarket chain by sales headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised its profit forecast for the full year on Thursday as the American retailer’s recent move to increase its focus on automation and online grocery stores seemed to be paying off.
In fact, Kroger Co’s most recent hike in its annual earnings forecast followed a surge in private label investments, the use of robots to store and ship goods through a partnership with Ocado, and third party partnerships for food delivery as the Die grew The Cincinnati retailer’s bet on fast deliveries had apparently encouraged Americans to shop for groceries online even though they had started in-store shopping and helped the second largest American retailer maintain a surge in online sales before the pandemic broke out.
Also, the heavyweight retailer’s digital sales were up 16 percent year-over-year, according to Kroger Co’s first quarter earnings report released earlier in the day.
Kroger Co raises profit forecast for full year
That said, Kroger Co’s revenue soared to $ 41.3 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year ended May 22, above a pre-pandemic level that insanely surpassed analysts’ estimate of $ 39.78 billion , had revealed IBES data from Refinitiv.
Additionally, Kroger Co., which had also unveiled a $ 1 billion share buyback program, had net income of $ 1.19 per share, up over Wall Street estimates of $ 1.01 per share and eventually drove Kroger Co stock prices up 4.34 percent to 4.34 percent, ending the day at $ 39.18 apiece.
While Kroger Co had raised its annual earnings forecast of between $ 2.95 and $ 3.10 per share from an earlier estimate of $ 2.75 to $ 2.95, the company’s CEO William McMullen said in a telephone conversation with the analysts after the result: “Customers continue to enjoy buying online … When they shop (online and in stores) our retention rate is incredibly high. ”
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