Investing.com - Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) has reported core income in the fourth quarter that topped analysts' expectations, as the online pet food retailer said it was bolstered by a solid uptick in demand.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in at $124.5 million during the period, compared with Bloomberg consensus projections of $118.4 million.

Net sales jumped by 14.9% versus a year ago to $3.25 billion in the 14 weeks ended on February 2, driven by an increase in active customers on the platform to 20.5 million. Both of the measures were above estimates.

"Our performance was underpinned by strong active customer growth," said CEO Sumit Singh in a statement, adding that the business has "momentum" heading into its 2025 fiscal year.

For its first quarter, Chewy is guiding for net sales expansion of approximately 6% to 7% year-over-year to a range of $3.06 billion to $3.09 billion. Analysts at Vital Knowledge said Wall Street was looking for a forecast of $3.04 billion.

Per-share profit is also seen at $0.30 to $0.35, indicating a midpoint roughly in line with expectations of $0.33.

Full-year net sales are tipped to increase by 6%-7% to $12.30 billion to $12.45 billion, versus projections of $12.42 billion, while core income margins are guided to be between 5.4%-5.7%.

Shares in Chewy were higher in premarket U.S. trading.

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