Grocery Outlet Holding shares fell about 8% in extended trading on Tuesday after the discount grocer reported third-quarter results and trimmed the top of its forecast for adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit. The stock was at $12.92 at 7:48 p.m. Eastern time, down 7.9% from its regular-session close of $14.02, which was up 1.1% from $13.87 on Monday. CNBC attributed the drop to what it called mixed third-quarter results.
Net sales rose 0.9% to $1.18 billion in the quarter ended Oct. 3, and sales at stores open at least a year rose 0.5%. The number of transactions rose 2.4%, while the average transaction size fell 1.9%. Adjusted earnings fell to 16 cents a share from 21 cents a year earlier, and gross margin slipped to 30.0% from 30.4%. Net income rose to $13.3 million from $11.6 million.
The company cut its forecast for 2026 adjusted EBITDA to $225 million to $229 million, from $225 million to $235 million. It raised its outlook for same-store sales to growth of 0.2% to 0.4%, from a range of a 0.5% decline to no change, raised the low end of its adjusted earnings forecast to 52 cents to 55 cents a share from 51 cents to 55 cents, and kept its net sales forecast of $4.70 billion to $4.72 billion.
“In the third quarter we returned to positive comparable store sales,” Chief Executive Jason Potter said.
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