By Denny Jacob
Petco Health & Wellness logged lower sales in its latest quarter, potentially suggesting consumers' are pulling back on pet-related purchases amid stubborn levels of inflation.
The pet food retailer's loss widened to $46.5 million, or 17 cents a share, for the first quarter ended May 4, from $1.9 million, or 1 cent a share, a year earlier. Adjusted losses were 4 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 6 cents a share on an adjusted basis.
Sales declined 1.7% to $1.53 billion from $1.56 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.51 billion.
Petco said growth in its consumables and services and other business was offset by a decline in its supplies and companion animal business.
For the fiscal second quarter, Petco guided for revenue around $1.53 billion and a loss of 2 cents a share on an adjusted basis. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.52 billion and a loss of 2 cents a share on an adjusted basis.
Petco's results are the latest since Ron Coughlin stepped down as chief executive officer in the prior quarter. The challenge to steer a turnaround falls to interim CEO R. Michael Mohan.
While inflation has begun to normalize, it's still off from the Federal Reserve's preferred target of 2%. Many goods continue to come with a higher price tag. The price for pets and pet products as tracked by the consumer-price index declined 0.5% in April compared to a year earlier. Pets and pet products in April 2023 were nearly 11% higher at the time than the prior year but began to steadily decline overall in the months since.
Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 22, 2024 07:44 ET (11:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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