Albertsons stock in hot water after sobering reveal

Albertsons Companies ( ACI ) opened Thursday, July 23, at $12.50 , more than $2 below Wednesday's close of $14.60 .

By midday, the stock traded near $11.38 , down about 22% and sitting on a fresh 52-week low of$11.02 .

Grocery stocks are supposed to be the boring ones. People eat in good times and bad, which is why the sector gets treated as a place to hide when the economy wobbles.

The company that runs Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and 19 other banners told investors its shoppers are pulling back , and it cut its profit forecast by roughly 21% .

According to Albertsons ' earnings release, the company earned $84.7 million , or 17 cents per share , in the 16 weeks that ended on June 20 .

That's down from $236.4 million and 41 cents a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings came in at 42 cents per share against 55 cents last year.

Revenue barely moved, rising 0.2% to $24.94 billion , and the increase came from fuel sales rather than groceries.

Identical sales, which track stores open in both periods, fell 0.8% .

That identical sales figure is the one that stung, because it means the same stores sold less food to the same shoppers .

Albertsons now expects adjusted earnings of $1.75 to $1.85 per share for fiscal 2026, down from $2.22 to $2.32 .

The midpoint of $1.80 lands well below the $2.27 analysts had predicted, Yahoo Finance reported.

Adjusted EBITDA guidance dropped to a range of $3.55 billion to $3.625 billion from $3.85 billion to $3.925 billion .

Identical sales guidance flipped from growth of 0% to 1% into a decline of 0.5% to 1.5% .

A missed quarter is simply one bad report, but a guidance cut of this size tells investors the company expects the pressure to last through February.

Albertsons Chief Financial Officer Sharon McCollam gave the detail that matters most on the earnings call .

She said the sales decline was sharpest among lower-income customers .