Shares of Kroger Co. /zigman2/quotes/206215053/composite KR -0.24% dropped 4.1% in premarket trading Thursday, after the supermarket chain reported a fiscal third-quarter profit that rose above expectations, but sales that came up short. For the quarter to Nov. 7, net income rose to $631 million, or 80 cents a share, from $263 million, or 32 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to 71 cents from 47 cents, beating the FactSet consensus of 67 cents. Sales rose 6.3% to $29.72 billion, but was below the FactSet consensus of $29.97 billion, while same-store sales growth of 10.9% missed expectations of a 9.3% rise. Kroger said it repurchased $304 million worth of its stock during the quarter. The company expects full-year adjusted EPS of $3.30 to $3.35, compared with the FactSet consensus of $3.30, and expects same-store sales to rise about 14.0%, compared with expectations of 12.5% growth. Kroger's stock has lost 10.6% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX +0.81% has gained 6.2%.
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