Ahold Delhaize Earnings: Top- and Bottom-Line Beats, but Guidance Unchanged

Ahold Delhaize released second-quarter results with sales up 0.7% at constant exchange rates versus up 0.3% for company-compiled consensus, driven by Europe (sales up 4.3% versus up 1.3% up for consensus) with US sales down 1.5% (versus down 0.4% for consensus). Like-for-like sales growth for the group was up 0.6% with Europe up 2.4% (up 1.7% for consensus) and the US down 0.4% (down 0.5% for consensus). The biggest upside surprise was on the bottom line though with the group's underlying EBIT margin at 4.2% (versus 3.9% for consensus), driven by both regions with Europe at 3.7% (versus 3.4% for consensus) and the US at 4.7% (versus 4.4% for consensus).