Same-store sales in the United States rose 1.4% in the third quarter compared with the third quarter of 2013.
Big Lots reaffirmed its full-year EPS guidance of $2.40 to $2.50, compared with EPS of $2.45 in 2013. For the fourth quarter, the company raised the high end of its expected EPS range from $1.76 to $1.80. The bottom end of the range remained unchanged at $1.70.
Consensus estimates call for fourth quarter EPS of $1.78 on revenues of $1.6 billion and EPS of $2.49 on revenues of $5.19 billion for the full year. Big Lots expects same-store sales to rise in the low single-digit range for the fourth quarter and in the range of 1% to 2% for the full year.
Big Lots in August announced a share repurchase program of up to $125 million, of which the company spent $114.8 million in the third quarter to acquire 2.6 million shares (4.7%) of the company’s outstanding shares. Since the quarter’s end, the company has spent the remaining funds in its repurchase program and has repurchased a total of 2.8 million shares at an average price per share of $44.21.
The company’s shares have gained more than 48% since the beginning of the year, after dropping 20% in the fourth quarter of last year. A share buyback program announced in early March pushed the share price back to flat with the December 2013 level, and the initiation of a $0.17 per share dividend in the summer sealed the deal for investors.
Big Lots’ shares traded down about 0.9% at $47.52 in premarket trading Friday morning, in a 52-week range of $25.50 to $51.75. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $52.20 before the results were announced.
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