Shares of South San Francisco, Calif.-based Core-Mark Holding Company (CORE) slid 1.8% in Wednesday trading, despite the company reporting Q2 2013 earnings that would appear to have exceeded analyst estimates on both profits and revenues.
Core-Mark earned $1.01 per diluted share in net profits, but noted that if LIFO expenses were excluded, its earnings would have been $1.20 per share, a 10% increase over Q2 2012 performance. Revenues for the quarter, at $2.5 billion, slightly exceeded expectations of $2.49 billion.
Core-Mark is one of the nation's largest suppliers of goods sold at convenience stores -- in particular, cigarettes. Year over year, Core-Mark's net sales grew 10%; sales of goods other than cigarettes grew 14%, with the company noting that the acquisition of a Carolina division in December 2012 contributed most of the growth.
Looking forward, Core-Mark guided investors to expect 10% to 12% sales growth over the course of the rest of this year, resulting in net profits per diluted share of between $3.10 and $3.25.
