Albertsons Cos. beat a first-quarter revenue estimate while earnings came up short as the retailer advanced an initiative to reconfigure and simplify corporate operations.
Net income was $84.7 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, versus $236.4 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, in the 2025 quarter, the company maintained. Adjusted for one-time events, net income was $210.3 million, or 42 cents per diluted share, versus $318.9 million, or 55 cents per diluted share, in the year-prior period.
An analyst consensus estimate from Zacks Investment Research called for earnings per adjusted diluted share of 55 cents and revenues of $24.81 billion.
Identical sales decreased 0.8% year over year in the quarter, Albertsons noted, while digital sales increased 13%.
Net sales and other revenue increased to $24.94 billion from $24.88 billion in the year-previous quarter, driven by higher fuel sales, the company reported. Operating income was $263.6 million versus $449.3 million in the year-before quarter.
Albertsons updated its financial outlook so that now it expects identical sales to come in down 1.5% to down 0.5% versus the previous forecast for flat to up 1% and adjusted net income per Class A common share to come in the range of $1.75 to $1.85 per share versus the previous $2.22 to $2.32 per share.
“In the first quarter, our digital and pharmacy businesses continued to deliver strong growth, while core grocery faced increasing pressure from softer industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer,” said Susan Morris, Albertsons CEO, who also discussed changes to the company’s business model under its “ACI Edge” initiative. “While these results did not meet our expectations, they underscored the need to move faster. Through ‘ACI Edge,’ we are accelerating change to strengthen our competitiveness and improve execution across the business. ‘ACI Edge’ includes simplifying our operating model, transitioning from 11 divisions to four regions and centralizing center-store merchandising to strengthen accountability, accelerate decision-making and better leverage our scale, technology and local market expertise.”
Morris said the actions Albertsons has undertaken “are designed to deliver sharper value, greater differentiation in fresh and an elevated customer experience across our stores and markets. By scaling best practices and investing in our customer value proposition, we believe we can drive stronger, more consistent growth while creating long-term value for both customers and shareholders.
“As we look ahead, we are moving decisively,” Morris continued. “Given continued softness in industry unit trends and a more cautious consumer, we are accelerating investments and operational changes designed to strengthen our customer value proposition and improve our competitive position. Accordingly, we are revising our fiscal 2026 outlook. We are choosing to accelerate investments in our customer value proposition and the customer experience ahead of expected productivity benefits because we believe these actions will improve our growth trajectory, strengthen our competitive position and create long-term shareholder value.”
