Spartan Stores Earnings: Beats Streets on a Surge in Profits

Spartan Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPTN) reported its results for the first quarter. Spartan Stores is a regional grocery distributor and grocery retailer, operating mainly in Michigan and Indiana.

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Spartan Stores Earnings Cheat Sheet for the First Quarter

Results: Net income for Spartan Stores, Inc. rose to $10.5 million (46 cents per share) vs. $7.8 million (34 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This marks a rise of 35.1% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 7.6% to $614.8 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Spartan Stores, Inc. reported adjusted net income of 40 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 39 cents per share. It fell short of the average revenue estimate of $630 million.

Quoting Management: “We are pleased with our ability to generate financial results ahead of our expectations for the fourth quarter through disciplined management of expenses and working capital. These results enabled us to return capital to shareholders through our quarterly dividend and share repurchases, while also repaying the $45 million balance on our revolving credit facility,” stated Dennis Eidson, Spartan’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We continued to execute on our strategic initiatives during the year as we successfully completed the rollout of our loyalty program to all traditional supermarket banners, increased our private brand development, enhanced our focus on fresh excellence and converted one of our existing Glen’s locations to a Valu Land, our new value-focused store format which is currently under development.”

Key Stats:

The company has beaten estiamtes for two quarters in a row. In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, it topped expectations with net income of 22 cents versus a mean estimate of net income of 21 cents per share.

Looking Forward: Expectations for the second quarter have not changed from 28 cents. For the fiscal year, the average estimate has moved down from $1.38 a share to $1.37 over the last ninety days.

(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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