Why W.W. Grainger Stock Rose 12% in May

Shares of industrial products supplier W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) rose a respectable 12% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That easily beat the S&P 500's gain of around 5%. There wasn't any material news out of the company during the month, but its late April earnings release set the stage -- sort of.

Grainger's Q1 sales were fairly strong, up 7% year over year. It was a complicated quarter on the bottom line, though, as the company took one-time charges on a business that it eventually agreed to divest in early June. Those costs led to a 29% decline in earnings in Q1. However, if you pull those costs out, the drop was a more modest 6%. That's not great, but in the face of COVID-19, earnings weren't exactly bad.   

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Source Fool.com