Albertsons Cuts Annual Outlook as Identical Sales Slip
The grocery retailer lowered its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $1.75 to $1.85 [4].
Albertsons Companies (ACI) reported a decline in identical sales and lowered its full-year financial targets for the first quarter of fiscal 2026.
The results marked a shift in the company's growth trajectory. Identical sales decreased 0.8% year over year in the first quarter. This followed three consecutive quarters of growth, including a 0.7% increase in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and 2.4% in the third quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $1,013.2 million, down from $1,111.0 million in the same period last year. The company's gross margin rate fell to 26.6% from 27.1% in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, a decrease of 23 basis points when excluding fuel and LIFO.
Operating costs rose as selling and administrative expenses reached 25.6% of net sales, up from 25.4% a year earlier. Excluding fuel, that rate increased 42 basis points. Digital sales growth also decelerated to 13%, compared to 16% in the prior quarter and 23% in the second quarter of fiscal 2025.
Albertsons revised its fiscal 2026 outlook downward across several key metrics. The company now expects identical sales to range between a 1.5% decrease and a 0.5% decrease, compared to a previous forecast of 0.0% to 1.0% growth. Adjusted EBITDA guidance was lowered to between $3.550 billion and $3.625 billion from a previous range of $3.850 billion to $3.925 billion.
To address operational efficiency, the company announced the "ACI Edge" realignment. The new structure consolidates 11 divisions into four regions and centralizes center-store merchandising. Capital expenditures guidance for the fiscal year was lowered to between $1.9 billion and $2.0 billion from the previous $2.0 billion to $2.2 billion range.
Albertsons increased its quarterly cash dividend by 13% to $0.17 a share on April 14, 2026. On the same date, the company increased its remaining share repurchase authorization to $2.0 billion.