Chewy Inc (NYSE:CHWY) stock rose 1.84% (As on June 12, 11:20:52 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company reported better than expected return for the first quarter of FY25, driven by robust active customer growth and high Autoship customer loyalty. The company continued expanding its Chewy Vet Care initiative, opening three new clinics and bringing the total to 11 locations across four states. The company remains on track to open eight to 10 new clinics in fiscal 2025. The company ended the quarter with $616.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, remained debt-free and reported total liquidity of approximately $1.4 billion.

Moreover, Hardgoods sales grew 12.3% year over year to $342.2 million, driven by improved assortment, better inventory lifecycle management, enhanced discoverability and a faster go-to-market strategy, including the addition of more than 150 new brands in the past two quarters. Consumable sales grew 6.4% year over year to $2.18 billion. The Autoship subscription program remained a cornerstone of Chewy’s model. Autoship customer sales grew 14.8% to $2.56 billion. The company ended the fiscal first quarter with 20.8 million active customers, a 3.8% increase year over year. Chewy’s net sales per active customer reached $583, reflecting a 3.7% year-over-year increase. Improvements were attributed to stronger customer retention, higher reorder rates and increased cross-category purchases, especially from members in the Chewy+ loyalty program, which showed early promise following its launch.

Furthermore, Chewy’s gross profit increased 8.2% year over year to $923.8 million. The gross margin decreased 10 basis points (bps) to 29.6% compared with 29.7% in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. The adjusted EBITDA was $192.7 million, an increase of 18.3% from $162.9 million reported in the year-ago quarter. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased 50 bps year over year to 6.2%.

CHWY in the first quarter of FY25 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 33 cents, according to analysts polled by FactSet. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 8.3 percent to $3.12 billion in the first quarter of FY25, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $3.08 billion.

For fiscal Q2, the company said it expects adjusted earnings of $0.30 to $0.35 per diluted share on net sales of $3.06 billion to $3.09 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expect adjusted EPS of $0.31 on sales of $3.04 billion.

For fiscal 2025, the company continues to expect net sales of $12.30 billion to $12.45 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect $12.42 billion.