Canadian Tire Q1 profit tops Street view on solid same-store sales
Last updated: 09:12 14 May 2015 EDT, First published: 14:12 14 May 2015 EDT
Canadian Tire (TSE:CTC.A), the country's largest sporting goods retailer, reported a better-than-expected profit in its first fiscal quarter, aided by solid same-store sales. Shares advanced.
Net income fell to C$68.5 million in the three months ended April 4, from C$70.6 million, a year earlier, the Toronto-based company said in a statement today.
Earnings per share were unchanged at C$0.88 per share, above the C$0.87 average estimate of 10 analysts polled by Capital IQ.
Revenue fell 2.3 percent to C$2.51 billion, hurt by lower gasoline prices. Excluding petroleum, revenue increased 2.2 percent, Canadian Tire said.
Same-store sales rose 4.7 percent in the first quarter at Canadian Tire stores, which sell home and automotive products.
Shares were up 0.9 percent at $127.59 at 1:48 p.m. in Toronto. The stock has gained 18 percent over the past year.
At FGL Sports, which sells sports-related products, same-store sales rose 8.6 percent, driven by strong footwear and athletic clothing sales.
Same store sales at Mark’s rose 5.5 percent, helped by demand for men’s casual wear and denim. Mark's sells casual and work clothing and footwear.
"We had a great start to the year with strong sales across the retail businesses and impressive results at Financial Services,” Canadian Tire CEO Michael Medline said in the statement.
“We once again owned the seasonal business and customers responded well to our assortments, helping drive the Canadian Tire banner to its best comparable store sales result in a decade."
Canadian retailers, which have been facing stiff competition from U.S. retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores and Amazon.com, are widely expected to benefit from Target's announcement in January that it would exit from Canada.
Last week, Canadian Tire said it would buy leases for 12 properties previously held by the Canadian unit of Target for $17.7 million.
