UPDATE: Office Depot Posts Upbeat Q1 Results, Plans To Close 400 US Stores

Office Depot ODP reported upbeat first-quarter results and announced its plans to close at least 400 stores in the United States. For the full year, Office Depot also lifted its adjusted operating income outlook to at least $160 million versus $140 million. Office Depot posted a quarterly net loss of $109 million, or $0.21 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $17 million, or $0.06 per share. Excluding items, it earned $0.07 per share. Its sales rose to $4.35 billion from $2.72 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.03 per share on sales of $4.28 billion. The company's press release offered the following comment from Roland Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Office Depot: “We are pleased with our first quarter performance. After a weather-challenged start to the year, sales trends improved as the quarter progressed, and we exceeded our expectations for both cost reduction and operational execution. With our new organizational structure established and leadership team largely in place, the execution on our critical priorities is improving, and we are delivering merger integration synergies more quickly than anticipated. Accordingly, we have increased our full year 2014 outlook for adjusted operating income to be not less than $160 million from our prior outlook of not less than $140 million.” Office Depot shares gained 8.39% to $4.52 in pre-market trading.