Winn-Dixie 2Q profit falls but beats Wall Street - AP

Winn-Dixie 2Q profit falls but beats Wall Street - AP
Winn-Dixie Stores fiscal 2nd-quarter profit drops but still beats Wall Street's expectations

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. reported late Tuesday its fiscal second-quarter profit tumbled from a year-ago period boosted by an insurance settlement, but its results still beat Wall Street's expectations.

The grocery store operator's shares gained 84 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $10.31 in afternoon trading Wednesday. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $8.01 to $16.

For the quarter ended Jan. 6, Winn-Dixie's quarterly earnings slid 87 percent to $2.1 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $16.1 million, or 30 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Results in the year-ago period included a gain of $22.4 million, or 25 cents per share, from an insurance settlement.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, whose estimates usually exclude one-time items, expected a loss of 16 cents per share.

Sales slipped 3 percent to $2.18 billion from $2.25 billion, hurt by six store closings and the absence of some storm-related sales. Sales met analyst estimates.

Sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.9 percent. The metric is a key indicator of retailer performance since it measures growth from existing stores rather than newly opened ones.