11:45 AM EDT, 04/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Albertsons ( ACI ) is expected to provide a full-year earnings outlook largely in line with Wall Street's expectations later this month, with investors likely focused on the grocery chain's efforts to stabilize margins and accelerate growth, Oppenheimer said in a Wednesday note.

The brokerage sees Albertsons' ( ACI ) earnings guidance bracketing Oppenheimer's $2.30 per-share estimate for fiscal 2025. The current consensus on FactSet is for non-GAAP EPS of $2.31.

The company aims to generate $1.5 billion in savings over the next three years to invest in customer value proposition and growth initiatives, Albertsons ( ACI ) Chief Executive Vivek Sankaran said during a fiscal third-quarter earnings call in January.

Oppenheimer views progress toward these productivity benefits and the amount reserved for reinvestment as "wild cards" for fiscal 2025. Currently, the brokerage projects all productivity gains in the first year of the plan to be reinvested back.

"From our experience with the management team, (Albertsons ( ACI )) has historically taken a conservative stance to initial guidance, and we expect the same once again," analysts Rupesh Parikh and Erica Eiler wrote in the note. "From here, we are focused on management's effort to stabilize margins and re-accelerate the business to deliver on recently announced longer-term targets."

Adjusted gross margin decreased year over year in the fiscal third quarter, Albertsons ( ACI ) said in January. That drop was driven by growth in lower-margin pharmacy sales and higher picking and delivery costs, partially offset by productivity initiatives.

Albertsons ( ACI ), which terminated its proposed $25 billion acquisition by Kroger (KR) in December, is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results on April 15. Oppenheimer expects the perform-rated company to "at least" meet a Street figure of $0.41 in adjusted EPS.

The brokerage expects the grocery chain to log an identical sales growth of about 2% for the quarter, buoyed by pharmacy tailwinds and higher levels of food inflation. The average analyst estimate on FactSet is for an increase of 1.8%.

Investor sentiment on pure play grocers has been "more positive" lately, according to Oppenheimer, amid robust grocery trends and lower tariff risks.

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