Kroger Co. (KR) reported that its net earnings attributable to the company for the fourth quarter increased to $518 million or $1.04 per share from $422 million or $0.81 per share in the year ago quarter.
Kroger's operating results include Harris Teeter in fourth quarter and fiscal 2014 but not fourth quarter and fiscal 2013, which affects year-over-year comparisons.
Net earnings per share, excluding certain items, improved to $1.04 from $0.78 in the previous year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.90 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Sales for the quarter grew to $25.21 billion from $23.22 billion last year. Total sales increased by 8.5%. Total sales excluding fuel increased by 14.2%. Wall Street expected revenues of $25.13 billion for the quarter.
Kroger anticipates identical supermarket sales growth, excluding fuel, of approximately 3.0% to 4.0% for 2015. This range takes into account the expectation of lower inflation during the year.
Full-year net earnings for 2015 are expected to range from $3.80 to $3.90 per share. Analysts expect annual earnings of $3.72 per share. This is consistent with the company's long-term net earnings per share growth rate of 8 - 11%, growing off of 2014 adjusted earnings of $3.52 per share.
The company expects capital investments, excluding mergers, acquisitions and purchases of leased facilities, to be in the $3.0 billion to $3.3 billion range for 2015.
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