Grocery Outlet stock rallies 6% after profit beat, raised outlook

Shares of Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. jumped 6% in the extended session Monday after the company reported adjusted profit above Wall Street expectations and tweaked its guidance higher. Grocery Outlet said it earned $12.4 million, or 13 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $7.7 million, or 11 cents a share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Adjusted for one-time items, Grocery Outlet earned $20.6 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $13 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 13.1% to $652.5 million, from $576.8 million a year ago. Same-store sales rose 5.8%, the company said. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 19 cents a share on sales of $652.6 million. Grocery Outlet said it expects full-year 2019 sales "slightly above" $2.55 billion, versus a prior guidance of sales between $2.50 billion and $2.53 billion, and adjusted EPS between 73 cents and 74 cents, compared with a previous guidance of adjusted EPS between 68 cents and 71 cents. Shares of Grocery Outlet ended the regular trading day down 0.4%.

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