Office Depot Beats Profit Expectations, Lifts Outlook

Office Depot's stock surged 13% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the office supplies retailer beat third-quarter profit forecasts, and raised its full-year outlook. Net earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 27 came in at $29 million, or 5 cents a share, down from $133 million, or 41 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted per-share earnings were 10 cents, exceeding the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of 9 cents. Sales rose 55% to $4.07 billion, while same-store sales fell 3%, compared with analyst forecasts of $4.07 billion and a decline of 3.1%, respectively. The company raised its outlook for 2014 adjusted operating income to a range of $255 million to $265 million, compared with a previous projection of "not less than $200 million." The stock has lost 4.2% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 has gained 9.2%.