Core & Main, Inc. (CNM) saw its stock plummet 6.81% in pre-market trading on Tuesday following a series of announcements that rattled investors. The company reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations, disclosed a significant leadership change, and provided a cautious outlook for fiscal 2025.
Core & Main's fiscal Q4 earnings came in at $0.33 per diluted share, missing the FactSet consensus estimate of $0.36 and declining from $0.34 a year earlier. While quarterly sales rose to $1.7 billion from $1.44 billion last year, beating analyst projections of $1.67 billion, the earnings miss overshadowed the revenue growth. Adding to investor concerns, the company announced a major leadership transition, with CEO Steve LeClair stepping down to become executive chair and CFO Mark Witkowski taking over as the new CEO effective March 31.
Further compounding the negative sentiment, Core & Main provided fiscal 2025 guidance that failed to inspire confidence. The company expects net sales in the range of $7.60 billion to $7.80 billion, with the midpoint slightly below the FactSet consensus estimate of $7.78 billion. This combination of disappointing earnings, leadership changes, and cautious forward guidance appears to have prompted a significant sell-off in Core & Main's shares during pre-market trading.