(By Balachander) MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc. (NYSE: MSM) reported a rise in quarterly earnings on sales growth though the company guided second-quarter below consensus citing soft demand environment and the lack of a mid-year price adjustment.
Earnings increased to $63.19 million or $1.00 per share for the first quarter from $59.84 million or $0.95 per share in the comparable period of last year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) increased 6.3 percent to $1.01.
Net sales rose nearly 6 percent to $577.5 million.
Wall Street analysts, on average, expected earnings of $1.01 per share on revenue of $582.3 million for the three months ended December 31.
Looking ahead for the second quarter, the company now expects adjusted EPS in the range of $0.86 to $0.90 on sales between $563 million and $575 million. Analysts expect earnings of $1.02 per share on sales of $597.4 million.
MSC distributes metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products primarily in the United States.
MSM shares, which have been trading in the 52-week range of $61.39 to $84.76, ended at $77.00 on Wednesday.