Why Shares of Supervalu Are Surging 14% After its First-quarter Results

Shares of SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU), a grocery leader serving customers through a network of more than 2,000 owned, franchised and independently owned stores across the country, are receiving some welcome optimism from the markets after releasing its first-quarter fiscal 2018 results and are trading 14% higher as of 3:20 PM EDT.

Starting from the top, Supervalu reported consolidated net sales of $4 billion which equated to a 6.3% gain over the prior year's result and above consensus estimates calling for $3.93 billion, per FactSet. On the downside, retail identical store sales were down 4.9% during the first-quarter; that was offset by a 12.4% increase in the company's wholesale segment. Looking at the bottom line, its net earnings from operations checked in at $12 million, or $0.04 per share, but when excluding one-time items that result jumped to $24 million, or $0.09 per share, which was still below analysts' estimates of $0.11 per share.

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Source: Fool.com