MSC Industrial Direct Co. Shares Up 3% On Upbeat Q2 Results

(RTTNews) - Shares of industrial equipment distributor MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (MSM) are rising more than 3% Tuesday morning after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Profit in the second quarter increased to $79.1 million or $1.41 per share from $69.9 million or $1.25 per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $1.45 per share, that beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $1.34 per share.

Quarterly sales increased 11.5% year-on-year to $961.6 million. The consensus estimate was for $934.07 million.

"We delivered average daily sales growth approximately 11 percentage points higher than the IP Index and double-digit average daily sales growth for the fourth consecutive quarter. Looking ahead, we expect our outperformance against the IP Index to continue as we execute across our five growth drivers and take share by leveraging technical expertise to create operational benefits across our customer base," commented Erik Gershwind, President and Chief Executive Officer.

MSM is at $87.38 currently. It has traded in the range of $71.33-$90.04 in the last 52 weeks.