Overview

* MSC Industrial fiscal Q3 net sales fell 0.8% year-over-year to $971.1 mln

* Adjusted EPS of $1.08 beat analyst expectations, per LSEG data

* EBIT misses analyst estimates, reflecting operational challenges, per LSEG data

Outlook

* Company expects Q4 average daily sales growth of -0.5% to 1.5%

* MSC Industrial anticipates Q4 adjusted operating margin of 8.5% to 9.0%

* Company maintains full-year depreciation and amortization expense of ~$90M-$95M

* MSC Industrial forecasts full-year capital expenditures of ~$100M-$110M

Result Drivers

* CORE CUSTOMER IMPROVEMENT - Sequential improvement in core customer performance noted, per CEO Erik Gershwind

* HIGH-TOUCH SOLUTIONS - Continued momentum in high-touch solutions driving sales, per CEO Erik Gershwind

* COST OPTIMIZATION - Efforts to optimize cost to serve contributed to operational performance

Key Details

Metric Beat/Mis Actual Consensu

s s

Estimate

Q3 Sales Beat $971.10 $970.20

mln mln (9

Analysts

)

Q3 Beat $1.08 $1.03 (9

Adjusted Analysts

EPS )

Q3 EPS $1.02

Q3 EBIT Miss $82.70 $86.90

mln mln (8

Analysts

)

Q3 EBIT 8.5%

Margin

Analyst Coverage

* The current average analyst rating on the shares is "hold" and the breakdown of recommendations is 2 "strong buy" or "buy", 8 "hold" and no "sell" or "strong sell"

* The average consensus recommendation for the industrial machinery & equipment peer group is "buy."

* Wall Street's median 12-month price target for MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc ( MSM ) is $84.00, about 1.2% below its last closing price of $85.02

* The stock recently traded at 22 times the next 12-month earnings vs. a P/E of 20 three months ago

Press Release:

(This story was created using Reuters automation and AI based on LSEG and company data. It was checked and edited by a Reuters journalist prior to publication.)