Central Garden & Pet Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Central Garden & Pet (Nasdaq: CENT ) popped 10% in intraday trading today after reporting better-than-expected revenue and earnings.

So what: After three consecutive earnings misses and year-over-year EPS declines, the company posted first-quarter earnings per share of $0.54, up 10% from the year-ago quarter and good enough to beat the consensus estimate of $0.49. Revenue of $486 million was also up 10% from the year-ago quarter to surpass the consensus forecast of a 3% increase. The company's revenue mix shifted to branded products from third-party products.

Now what: Investments in brand building and product innovation aren't fertilizing profits: A lower share count drove the EPS increase. Revenue growth of 10% year over year accompanied a gross-profit increase of only 1%, an operating-profit decline of 1%, and essentially flat net profit. Investors shouldn't let puppy love cloud their judgment on this stock if they don't want to scoop up an unwanted mess.

Interested in more info on Central Garden & Pet? Add it to My Watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

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Fool contributor Cindy Johnson owns no shares of any company named above. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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