Office Depot Reports 2018 Q4 Financial Result

Originally published at Thestreet.

Office Depot Rings Up Fourth-Quarter Earnings Beat

Office Depot climbed 9% to $3.57 Wednesday after the office supplies and services company beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter earnings expectations.

The Boca Raton, Florida-based company reported a loss of $14 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $48 million, or 9 cents a share, a year ago. The latest results included a $15 million loss related to refinancing a company loan. Adjusted fourth-quarter earnings came to 9 cents a share, beating analysts’ expectations of 8 cents.

Sales for the quarter totaled $2.67 billion, compared with $2.58 billion a year ago.

Retail store sales in the quarter were down 6% from a year ago, while comparable same-store sales – those open at least a year – were down 5%. During the fourth quarter, the company said it opened one new store, replaced one store, and closed 13 stores, ending the quarter with a total of 1,361 stores in the retail division.

Product sales in the fourth quarter were down 1%, while service revenue grew 34%, driven primarily by service revenue contributed by the partial inclusion of CompuCom divisional results and growth in the business solutions division. Office Depot acquired CompuCom, an IT provider for businesses, for $1 billion in 2017.

For the year, sales were $11 billion, up from $10.24 billion in 2017. Office Depot said net income was $99 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with $146 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago. Looking ahead, the company forecast sales of about $11.1 billion for 2019.