Author Archives: Paul Fletcher

Express Scripts Claims Shortfall Prompts Slight Miss in First Quarter and Guidance Reduction

Express Scripts Claims Shortfall Prompts Slight Miss in First Quarter and Guidance Reduction

Express Scripts reported underwhelming first-quarter results on Thursday evening. While the company continues to do an enviable job at driving improved profitability per claim, overall claims volume was light and management expects that pattern to persist for the full year, prompting a $0.06 per share EPS guidance reduction. Claims volume has been the company’s weakness

Urban Outfitters Quarter-to-Date Comps on Track Versus Expectations

In its 10-K filed after the markets closed on Tuesday, Urban Outfitters indicated quarter-to-date comp trends are in the negative low-single-digit range, likely putting the company on track to meet full-quarter consensus expectations for an approximate 1% comp increase and our estimate of relatively flat given the shift in Easter to late April. Urban’s 10-K

MSC Industrial Accelerating Sales Growth and Positive Tone Bode Well for Shares

Accelerating sales growth, an EPS beat, and positive management tone drove MSC Industrial shares up nearly 5%. EPS were $0.02 ahead of the Street, although the bar was low due to weather fears. The headline was accelerating organic sales growth in March to 10% and guidance for 7%-9% growth in the fiscal third quarter. Management said

Amazon.com Improving Third-Party Sales Trend in March

Tuesday morning  ChannelAdvisor, which tracks monthly same-store sales growth for third-party sellers on the Amazon and eBay marketplaces, announced sales trends for the month of March. According to ChannelAdvisor, growth of Amazon’s third-party sales accelerated to 26.2% in March from 23.0% in February, and 14% in January (see exhibit 1). On a two-year stacked basis,

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