Shares of PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) jumped about 3.50% in afterhours trading on Tuesday after the discount warehouse clubs operator said that its income in the fiscal second quarter increased from year-earlier quarter owing to continued improvement in sales.
For the fiscal second quarter ended February 28, the San Diego, California-based Company reported a profit of $24.9 million or 82 cents a share compared to $20.2 million or 67 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue during the quarter rose to $607.4 million from $548.4 million, in the same quarter of last year.
Analysts’ consensus estimate was for earnings of 77 cents a share on revenue of $609.67 million.
The Company has been consistently posting a double-digit revenue growth for more than 10 successive quarters.
During the quarter, revenue from warehouse club sales, which accounts for most of the company’s total revenue, jumped 10% from the same quarter of last fiscal.
For the first six months of the current fiscal, net warehouse sales have climbed 10.9% to $1,115.5 million while total revenue in the same period has soared 11.4% to $1,142.7 million from the same quarter of last fiscal. Operating income for the first six months of 2013 stood at $66.2 million while net income came at $44.9 million or $1.48 a share.
The double digit growth signifies that consumers still prefer to purchase from warehouse chains, whose merchandises are cheaper compared to other retailers. As of February 30, PriceSmart operated 30 warehouse clubs in 12 countries and one U.S. territory, compared to 29 warehouse stores, last year.
For March 2013, PriceSmart said that its comparable-warehouse club-sales climbed 7.9% from the same quarter of last fiscal. Comparable store sales are a key gauge on retailer’s performance. Total warehouse club sales in March jumped 11.5% to $192.3 million, from the same period of last fiscal year.
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