The company reported a loss of $424 million or $2.00 per share, but that is after asset impairment charges and layoff and restructuring costs. Supervalu would have earned $0.38 EPS outside of items. That is down from $0.44 EPS a year earlier but well above the consensus target from Thomson Reuters of $0.35 EPS. Revenue was down by 5% to $8.23 billion, and that was slightly under the Thomson Reuters consensus target of $8.31 billion.
Guidance is where SuperValu’s story gets interesting. The company forecast annual earnings to be in a range of $1.27 to $1.42 EPS outside of items against a backdrop of $1.19 per share expected from Thomson Reuters. With a $5.32 closing price on Monday, the case for value is strong in an obvious turnaround. The 52-week trading range is $5.07 to $11.77 and shares recently put in a multi-decade low after having been above $45 briefly almost ten years ago.
It is without surprise that today’s report has shares indicated up over 16% at $6.18.
JON C. OGG
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