Chewy’s customer
base has continued to increase and this momentum is likely to continue in the
to-be-reported quarter. The company has also witnessed an increase in spending
among customers. Chewy is also making efforts to expand its sales and margins by
growing private brands, leveraging operational efficiencies and exploring
broader platform opportunities.
Chewy faces stiff
competition from companies like General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) who are established players. Despite this, Chewy is
expected to deliver strong results for Q2.
In the first quarter of 2019, Chewy missed earnings expectations but sales were in line with estimates. Net sales jumped 45% to $1.11 billion. Net loss narrowed to $29.55 million, or $0.08 per share, from $59.82 million, or $0.15 per share in the previous year quarter, helped by higher sales, gross margin expansion and lower costs.
Also read: Pet supplies retailer Chewy surges 70% on Wall Street debut
Active customers increased
by 44.6% year-over-year to 11.3 million and net sales per active customer rose by
9.2% to $343. Autoship customer sales, customers for whom an order is shipped
through its Autoship subscription program, surged by 55.8% to $743.85 million
from the prior-year quarter.
For the second
quarter, Chewy has guided for sales growth of 39-42% year-over-year to a range
of $1.12 billion to $1.14 billion. For fiscal year 2019, net sales are
anticipated to increase by 32-34% year-over-year to a range of $4.67 billion to
$4.75 billion.
Chewy’s shares have fallen over 9% in the past one month. The majority of analysts have rated the stock as Hold and it has an average 12-month price target of $37.10.