{"id":1279,"date":"2019-08-08T12:14:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:14:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:14:29","slug":"publix-stock-price-flutters-down-despite-strong-financial-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/08\/08\/publix-stock-price-flutters-down-despite-strong-financial-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Publix stock price flutters down despite strong financial results"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A lot of Publix retirees are annoyed today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the most ardent followers of the stock price for\nPublix Supermarkets Inc. are the company\u2019s retirees because its value directly\naffects their nest eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many retirees are no doubt dismayed and confused after\nthe Lakeland-based supermarket chain announced a 1.4% decline in the Publix\nstock value despite the upward trend in all other major financial numbers for\nthe second quarter and first half of this year. A share is now worth $44.10,\ndown from $44.75 previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix stock is not publicly traded, but it is held by\ncurrent and former employees. Independent financial analysts determine the\nPublix stock prices based on a comparison of financial performance in a \u201cpeer\ngroup\u201d of other supermarket chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retirees and other Publix stockholders should not give up\nthe ship, said David Livingston, a Hawaii-based analyst of the supermarket\nindustry who usually reviews Publix favorably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know the pricing of Publix stock is complicated, but my\ngut tells me that if I was an employee, I\u2019d be loading up all I could afford,\u201d\nLivingston said in an email to The Ledger following Thursday\u2019s release of the\ncompany\u2019s second quarter results. \u201cPublix is probably one of the few\nconventional retailers that still has a future in the world where online\nshopping becomes the norm. Adapt or die; Charles Darwin would be proud of\nPublix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix did not reply to a Ledger email requesting\nelaboration on the stock price change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix reported sales totaling $9.3 billion for\nits second quarter, a 6.8% increase from $8.8 billion the second\nquarter of 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same-store sales, a key retail metric, rose 4.8% in the\nsecond quarter. The statistic measures sales at stores open at least a year to\nfactor out the effect of adding new stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix realized a second quarter profit of $661.1 million,\nor 92 cents per share, up 7.3% compared to $616.2 million (84 cents\nper share) in the same quarter last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The calendar contributed to the gaudy increases, the company\nacknowledged, because Easter shopping fell in the second quarter this year and\nthe first quarter last year. The company estimated this year\u2019s second quarter\nsales rose 1.2% due to the calendar effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Profit and earnings per share also were improved by gains in\nthe value of Publix\u2019s stock portfolio in the second quarter compared to a year\nago, the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excluding the stock impacts, the quarterly profit would have\nbeen $637 million (89 cents per share) compared to $571 million\n(78 cents) a year ago, an 11.6% increase, the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re beating expectations. It\u2019s an absolutely great\nfinancial statement,\u201d said Larry Ross, a retired business professor at Florida\nSouthern College in Lakeland who follows Publix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross was particularly impressed that Publix\u2019s profit has\ngrown at a higher rate than its sales, which means growth is outperforming the\ninflation rate, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased that our Publix associates delivered good\noperating results,\u201d CEO Todd Jones said in the statement. \u201cWe continue to\nprovide premier service to help offset the challenges in the stock market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline in Publix stock value likely had more to do with\nthe declining value of the three other companies in the peer group \u2014 Ahold\nDelhaize, Kroger and Weis Markets \u2014 than in the Publix financial performance,\nLivingston said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost other grocers have seen a decline in the past\nquarter,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I was cashing in on retirement, I might not be so happy,\nbut at least a long-time (young) employee will retire a millionaire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stock price decline probably has more to do with the\nlong-term trends in the supermarket industry as online grocers increase their\nmarket share at the expense of traditional brick-and-mortar supermarkets such\nas Publix, Ross said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investors\u2019 confidence in a company\u2019s future performance\nhas more to do with its stock price than past performance, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decrease in value probably reflects strong headwinds in\nthe grocery market,\u201d Ross said. \u201cIn my professional opinion, the increase\nlikelihood of online grocery sales to cut into brick-and-mortar grocery stores\nis probably the reason the stock declined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix reported sales for the six months this year\nreached $19 billion, a 5.5% increase from $18 billion in\nthe first half of 2018. Same-store sales increased 3.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company had a first half profit of $1.6billion ($2.29 per\nshare), up 27% from $1.3billion ($1.77) last year. Excluding the stock\nmarket effects, the first half profit would have settled at $1.4 billion\n($1.92), or an 8% rise from $1.3 billion ($1.74) a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publix employs more than 200,000 people at 1,222\nsupermarkets and 20 warehouses and manufacturing facilities in seven states \u2014\nFlorida, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the rising competition from online groceries,\nLivingston expressed a more positive outlook for the Lakeland-based supermarket\nchain in a turbulent national industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe future will continue to be brighter as competitors\ncontinue to struggle up and down the Eastern seaboard,\u201d Livingston said. \u201cFrom\nVirginia Beach to Key West, the market is littered with ineffectual competitors\nsuch as Food Lion, Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie, The Fresh Market, Earth Fare and Piggly\nWiggly. New competitors, such as Wegmans, are coming to North Carolina, however\nI don\u2019t expect them to impact Publix very much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of Publix retirees are annoyed today. Among the most ardent followers of the stock price for Publix Supermarkets Inc. are the company\u2019s retirees because its value directly affects… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}