LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Safeway Inc reported on Thursday quarterly profit excluding charges in line with Wall Street's view, but shares in the supermarket operator fell 4 percent as sales and profitability eroded amid stiff competition.
The Pleasanton, California-based operator of Safeway, Vons and Dominick's stores had a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.61 billion, or $4.06 per share, after it booked items including a noncash goodwill impairment charge of $1.97 billion related to reduced market capitalization and the weak economy. Safeway reported net income of $338 million, or 79 cents per share for the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding the charge, the company earned 53 cents per share, matching the average forecast complied by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total sales fell to $12.7 billion, down 8.1 percent from a year earlier, when there was an extra week in the quarter. Identical-store fell 4.1 percent, excluding fuel. Safeway defines identical stores, a key gauge of supermarket performance, as those operating in the same period during the current and previous years. The figure does not include replacement stores.
Shares in Safeway fell 4 percent to $22.57 in early trading.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
