By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Kroger (NYSE:KR) shares rose more than 1% Thursday after the company revised its annual guidance and gave a fresh approval to the $1 billion share repurchase program after the earlier authorization lapsed.
The company today declared its performance for the first quarter ended on May 22.
The grocer now expects its adjusted net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $2.95 to $3.10 for the full year, the momentum coming from more shoppers at its stores as people leave Covid behind.
The Kroger management had earlier guided the annual EPS to come between $2.75 and $2.95.
Total company sales were $41.3 billion in the first quarter, compared to $41.5 billion for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share came at $1.19 against $1.22 in the first quarter of last fiscal.
Both sales and EPS, while lower than comparable figures last fiscal, were higher than the estimate.
The company said its digital sales since the beginning of 2019 have shown triple-digit growth.
An Investing.com poll estimated first-quarter EPS of $0.98 on revenue of $39.56 billion.