By Adriano Marchese
Alimentation Couche Tard shares were sharply lower Thursday morning after the company said its third-quarter profit fell as consumers reigned in their spending.
Shares trading in Toronto were down 4.6% to 77.78 Canadian dollars ($57.65).
Late on Wednesday, the Canadian convenience-store chain reported a profit of $623.4 million, or 65 cents a share, in the quarter ended Feb. 4, compared with $737.4 million, or 73 cents a share, a year earlier.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected per-share earnings to remain steady at 73 cents.
Revenue also fell, dropping by 2.2% to $19.62 billion, but ahead of expectations of analysts for $18.3 billion.
Couche-Tard said the drop in revenue was caused by lower average car-fuel selling prices and weaker traffic because of challenging economic conditions.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-21-24 1022ET