Couche-Tard Shares Slide After 1Q Profit Falls, Revenue Misses Expectations

By Robb M. Stewart

Alimentation Couche-Tard's shares slipped Thursday after the Canadian gas station and convenience store operator reported a drop in earnings for the latest quarter as revenue was squeezed by lower fuel sales.

In morning trading, the shares were 1% lower at C$70.82, narrowing the gain so far this year to 19%. At the same time, Toronto's S&P TSX index was 0.3% lower, for a gain of 4% year-to-date.

The company, which operates under the Circle K and Couche-Tard banners and has more than 14,400 stores in 25 countries, logged fiscal first-quarter earnings of $834.1 million, or 85 cents a share, against $872.4 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings edged up to 86 cents for the three months through July 23 after stripping out acquisition costs and a foreign exchange hit. This result topped the 78 cents a share mean estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue for the quarter fell 16% to $15.62 billion, driven by a sharp decline in the value of road-transport fuel sales that offset a rise in merchandise and service revenue. Analysts had expected revenue of $16.13 billion.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 07, 2023 11:26 ET (15:26 GMT)

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