Petco Health & Wellness Co. Inc.’s stock WOOF fell 2.3% in premarket trades Wednesday after the pet food and health products company offered soft revenue guidance for the current year. Petco beat analysts’ top and bottom line expectations in its first-quarter results, released before market open. The company posted a net loss of $1.9 million, or a loss of 1 cent a share, after net income of $24.7 million or earnings of 9 cents a share, in the prior year’s quarter. Petco said this was driven primarily by a 5 cent per share per share increase in interest expense year-over-year. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 6 cents a share, compared to 14 cents a share in the same period last year, but above the FactSet consensus of 5 cents a share. Petco’s revenue was $1.56 billion, an increase of 5.4% on the same period last year, which the company said was driven by strength in the company’s consumables business and services. However, Petco’s supplies and companion animal business was down 7.6% compared with the prior year’s quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for revenue of $1.499 billion. Same-store sales grew 5.1%, above the FactSet consensus of 1.1%. “We continue to execute on our strategy amidst the current environment, delivering our 18th consecutive quarter of comp sales growth in the first quarter, driven by the ongoing strength in consumables and record performance in our services business,” said Petco CEO Ron Coughlin, in a statement. The company reaffirmed its fiscal 2023 guidance of revenue between $6.150 billion and $6.275 billion and adjusted earnings of 40 cents to 48 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are looking for revenue of $6.246 billion and adjusted earnings of 43 cents a share.
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