Albertson S Inc

Albertsons Inc. said Tuesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 49% largely because of acquisitions, but the grocery chain cut its earnings forecast for this year, sending its stock to a 52-week low as it continued to recover from last year's bitter Southern California supermarket strike and lockout. The nation's second-largest grocer said net income increased to $194 million, or 52 cents a share, in the period ended Feb.

Nearly 10 months after the end of the bitter Southern California grocery strike and lockout, the three companies and the union that waged the longest labor standoff in U.S. supermarket history are still in turmoil. Profits at Albertsons Inc., Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions stores and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs are being pinched by the price cuts they've made to woo shoppers alienated by the 4 1/2 -month dispute.

Shares of Albertsons Inc. continued to rise Friday on renewed speculation that an aborted buyout of the grocery store chain might be on again. The Boise, Idaho-based company -- owner of 270 supermarkets and 332 Sav-on Drugs stores in Southern California -- edged up 6 cents to $22.59, after adjustment for a 19-cent dividend payout. The stock price has climbed more than 4% since the end of trading Wednesday.

Albertson's Inc. said its fourth-quarter operating profit fell a less-than-expected 17% but warned that first-quarter earnings will miss forecasts. The supermarket operator said profit fell to $246 million, or 60 cents a share, excluding merger-related costs of $26 million, from a year ago, as sales fell 3.6% to $9.54 billion. Analysts on average were expecting 50 cents in the latest quarter, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.

Grocery chain Albertson's Inc. posted a 32% rise in fiscal fourth-quarter profit, saying cost cutting helped offset weaker sales and competition led by discounting giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The company is leaving the Houston, San Antonio, Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., markets as part of a cost-cutting program. Albertson's stock rose 29 cents to $31.69 on the New York Stock Exchange. The Boise, Idaho-based retailer said net income for the quarter ended Jan.

Albertson's Inc. had a profit in its fiscal second quarter, contrasting with a loss a year ago, after the No. 2 U.S. supermarket company shut stores to reduce costs in an attempt to compete with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and rival grocers. Net income in the second quarter ended Aug. 1 was $253 million, or 62 cents a share, contrasted with a loss of $151 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier, the operator of Acme supermarkets and Osco drugstores said. Sales fell 3.2% to $8.94 billion.

The Southern California grocery workers union said it withdrew a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the Albertsons supermarket chain violated federal labor law. In March, the United Food and Commercial Workers union charged in a complaint that Albertsons violated the National Labor Relations Act in the days leading up to a vote by workers that gave union leaders the power to call a strike. The union withdrew the complaint last week because of a lack of witnesses.