First quarter sales for Publix Super Markets were $15.1 billion, a 5% increase from $14.3 billion in 2023. Comparable store sales increased by 2.8%.
The employee-owned and -operated company estimates that sales increased 1% due to the effect of the Easter holiday being in the first quarter of 2024. In 2023, the effect of the Easter holiday was in the second quarter.
In March, Publix reported net earnings of $4.3 billion in 2023, up nearly 50% from the $2.9 billion reported in 2022. But the employee-owned supermarket did see net earnings drop 7.8% in the fourth quarter of the year to $1.2 billion.
Net earnings for the three months ended March 30 were $1.4 billion, compared with $1.2 billion in 2023, an increase of 10.1%. Earnings increased to 41 cents per share, up from 37 cents per share in 2023. Excluding the impact of net unrealized gains on equity securities in 2024 and 2023, net earnings for the three months ended March 30, 2024, and April 1, 2023, would have been $1.1 billion. Earnings per share for the three months ended March 30 would have been 33 cents per share, compared with 32 cents per share in 2023.
Effective May 1, Publix’s stock price increased from $15.20 to $16.25 per share. Publix stock is not publicly traded and is made available for sale only to current Publix associates and members of its board of directors.
Publix operates approximately 1,366 stores, 10 distribution centers, and 10 manufacturing facilities across the southern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Lakeland, Fla.-based grocer employs more than 250,000 people.
