Chewy Inc says its sales soared 45% in the fiscal third quarter

Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) said on Tuesday that its sales came in better than expected in the fiscal third quarter. The company also expressed confidence that its loss was narrower than what analysts had anticipated for Q3.  

Chewy was reported about 2.5% down in extended trading on Tuesday. At £57.75 per share, the online retailer is now more than 165% up year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of £17.05 per share in March, when the COVID-19 restrictions were the most stringent. The price action should come in handy if you are interested in investing in the stock market.

Chewy’s Q3 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

Chewy said that its loss in the third quarter printed at £24.57 million that translates to 5.99 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, the U.S. company had lost £59.17 million or 14.98 pence per share.

The online retailer of pet food and a range of pet-related products said that it generated £1.33 billion of net sales in the recent quarter that represent a 45% year over year growth. Chewy said it had 17.8 million active users at the end of the third quarter or 40% more than the comparable quarter of last year.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to record £1.29 billion of sales in Q3. Their estimate for per-share loss stood at a much higher 9.74 pence. The American retailer has benefitted tremendously in recent months due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic that fuelled demand for pet food and products.

Chewy’s net margin expands 460 basis points in Q3

The COVID-19 crisis has so far infected more than 15 million people in the United States and caused a little under 300 thousand deaths. In the prior quarter (Q2), Chewy had registered a 47% increase in its revenue, as per the report published in September.

At 25.5%, Chewy’s gross margin in the third quarter posted an annualised growth of 180 basis points. Its net margin in Q3 stood at 1.8% or 460 basis points higher than last year. CEO Sumit Singh of Chewy secured a spot in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2020 Bloomberg 50 list last week.

Chewy debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last year in June at a per-share price of £26.21. At the time of writing, the Dania Beach-based company is valued at £24.40 billion.